Chris Newberg - illustrator

Website Mock-up

2011-10-18T13:01:00.001-07:00

Here is a really rough draft of the basic layout of the new website. I have no idea what I'm doing. All I know is that I want it to be as simple as possible.

SHOWTIME!

2011-10-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Come check out the show. Featuring the art of the beautiful Amy Tidwell and my own. Opening night is Thursday, October 13th circa 7 pm. Come get some delicious coffee, enjoy the company and buy some art :)

Nuther GJ's Poster

2011-10-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

So if you haven't noticed I finally made friends with the pen tool in vector. LOVE that thing.

GJ's Shirts

2011-10-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

Any ideas on what you want on GJ's shirts? now's the time to say so. Leave your ideas in the comment section.

New website coming sooooooon!!!!

2011-10-04T18:30:00.001-07:00

So I've been painting... and working on a new website... and planning a show. Stay tuned.

JIW Show!

2011-09-02T11:18:00.001-07:00

A flier for my bud's show coming up this month!

Samuel's Lullaby

2011-09-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

People Drawing...

2011-08-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

Life in the fish Bowl

2011-08-02T21:31:00.001-07:00

Robot Love

2011-07-30T16:28:00.001-07:00

Its been a while.. Sorry :(

Hide Your Heart Away

2011-06-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hanging Apartments

2011-04-23T21:01:00.001-07:00

Castaway's Shelter

2011-04-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

Tree House

2011-04-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

concept art for a possible new book idea... Ever since I was a kid I wanted to make a coffee table book about the coolest dream houses I could dream up. The time might be here at last.

Possible Dram House Ideas:
A Castaway's Home (a house made from an old wrecked ship on a faraway island)
The Hammock House (every room is its own separate hanging compartment)
Turtle Town (an underwater house on the back of a giant turtle)

Anyone got any ideas? Throw them out there!!! PS they dont have to alliterate.

Silver Chair

2011-04-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Finding Neverland

2011-04-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

I found it!

Puddleglum

2011-04-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

Some good ol' Chronicles of Narnia...TO ANY ONE WHO WANTS TO GO DIGITAL: Its not as expensive as you think. This piece was colored with a $300 netbook and Photoshop Elements which is super stripped down version of Photoshop that comes free with many new computers. Crazy huh? Dabbling with digital isn't as far from your grasp as you think.

Peter Pan Sketch Work

2011-04-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

I read the actual novel Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie. The imagery got into my head so bad that this was the only way to get it out. Hope you enjoy.

Dear Alex,

I'm posting again. Are you happy?

Love Chris

Old Radio

2010-12-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

Okay so here it is! My latest recorded song accompanied by my first animation ever! Enjoy.

GJ's November

2010-10-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

If anyone saw Dale's flier (Dale is one of the many good people that run GJ's coffee house music venue) they will notice I ripped it off horribly. But, seriously, it was a good idea.

The Lost Heiress

2010-09-25T09:49:00.001-07:00

It was true. The mark on the peasant girl's arm made it unmistakable.

The Toy Maker

2010-09-20T22:41:00.001-07:00

If anyone can come up with a sweet story to go with this pic definitely post it in the comment section. I would seriously love that.

Dragon

2010-09-19T01:04:00.000-07:00

"The Night It Finally Hatched"

African Priestess

2010-09-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

The Street Merchant

2010-09-16T14:14:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure if the mysterious creature in the basket is his pet or his black market merchandise. Either one would make a great story. . .

The Chosen One

2010-09-15T14:47:00.001-07:00

One gargoyle whispered to the other as the stranger walked passed, "At last, the time has come! Here stands the chosen one."

The Masquerade

2010-09-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

Mermaid

2010-09-13T12:36:00.001-07:00

Another shot at recoloring pencils. I can't stop sketching so I figured I might try to color ones that I really like.

Oh! And another GJ's poster

2010-09-12T23:33:00.001-07:00

So this is just a drawing I did in graphite on a piece of card stock. I scanned in the pencil drawing and then recolored it in photoshop. Who needs inking!? HA!

So it has been a while...

2010-09-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

Double Threat

2010-03-31T09:42:00.001-07:00

So there seems to be a big rift between Illustrators and designers. I would like to be somewhere in the middle someday. Here is the process work for a handout I did for a Church in Oregon. They're pretty hip so they are letting me do my usual style. This isn't the final but it was a shot at it. I sketched the idea out in Photoshop with my tablet, then used my newly acquired vector skills to make it in Illustrator. Then put the finishing touches and sketches in on Photoshop. About 4-5 hours of work.

Fun with Vector

2010-03-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

My friend Alex Waters taught my the ropes on illustrator so I thought I'd put my new skillz to good use on my Grace Community Church Banner Commission. Thanks Alex! PS we should draw at the zoo again, Alex. That was really fun.

Teaser

2010-02-17T17:09:00.000-08:00

So . . . I'm painting these days. This is a closeup from a 6-canvas piece titled Love Song For J. Alfred. Here are a few more Details just to wet your appetite. Why not just show the full piece? You can see it at my show!

MARCH

2010-02-09T22:30:00.001-08:00

Painting

2010-01-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

I started painting again. Well, actually I think this might be one of the first paintings I've ever done on a canvas. I'm also no longer using acrylic washes but keeping it opaque. Very new chapter. I love the feeling of the brush on the canvas. I love having a finished, tangible product to hang on the wall. I hate how hard it is to get a digital copy of it. Anyway. . . I think I'll do many more of these. Possibly have a show?

GJ's FEB

2010-01-04T19:31:00.001-08:00

GJ's January Poster

2009-12-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

COVER

2009-11-26T07:45:00.001-08:00

The dummy book is done!! And it only took me about a week and half. Here is the idea for the cover art. Anyone want to see the dummy just let me know, I can email it too you. Its a 4MG PDF.

At The Babysitter's - Full Color Spread

2009-11-18T14:52:00.000-08:00

So this is the first page of At The Babysitter's. In this picture Mom is dropping the boys off at the sitter's. Of course to the boys, who are way too imaginative and over dramatic, they are being left in prison guarded by a huge orc. The following page is the punchline where you see the shot how it really is: A working mom who is saying goodbye to a couple of cute boys standing next to the sitter. The contrast of the two, imagination and reality, is the gag.
Style: I like the look of flat color backgrounds and sketchy drawings contrasted with fully rendered points of interest.(like the mother/barbarian queen for example) I want to keep it as painterly as possible, with voice bubbles and large text. I'm hoping to bridge the gap between comics/fantasy art with children's book art. I hope it works! :)

At The Babysitter's Character Design

2009-11-12T16:06:00.001-08:00

Some Character Design for "At the Babysitter's". On the left is The Queen (AKA the main character's mother) and on the right is The Britney.
I threw in some voice bubbles just for fun.

Sketch of the day

2009-11-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

Fun with Photoshop

2009-11-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

So this is some work I did for my church's 2010 stewardship campaign. The theme is "pressing on". Images like these will be used for bulletins, brochures, mailers, power point backgrounds and banners. I thought I'd post these to show before and after pictures of the images I was given/used. Oh the joys of Photoshop and Illustrator.

At The Babysitter's

2009-10-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

Okay I better preface this story. It's about A kid and his brother who's mom has to go to work during the day so she drops them off at the babysitters until she gets home from work. The story is narrated in journal entry style from one of the kid's point of view as he describes the course of one full day at the babysitter's. But he thinks he's a Warlord or something so his point of view is really wacked and entertaining. Hope you enjoy.

At The Babysitter's

by CEN 10/30/2009

Journal Entry #1We are being held captive, Michael and I. The Queen Mother left us in a foreign land as prisoners. She was going on a voyage and did not trust us while she was away. She thought we would revolt. . . So she left us here, in a dungeon, and promised we'd be here until we died, or until dinner time. She is, after all, a ruthless Queen.

Entry #2 We are endlessly watched by a guard, one we do not speak of. I caught the name only once and it was enough to make me shutter. The name was. . . Britney. Our jailer reports to a queen, an empress that lurks in the shadows somewhere, toiling over her plots. The jailer threatens to tell the queen when we do not obey her.

Entry #3 We have been left here for hours with out any food or sustenance. I am faring better than Michael. I had a bowl of Cheerios before I was brought to this place, but Michael, Michael had skipped breakfast. A warrior should never skip breakfast. Its the most important meal of the day. . .

We found a mouse in the corner of one of the cells. We tried to catch it for food but the jailer told us we were not allowed to eat Snowflake. What a strange land we are captives in? They even name their vermin.

Entry #4 We have spotted something. Out across the land lives our archenemies, Devin and Kevin. Twins with orange hair. The Britney, as they call her, is an enemy but The Evins are far worse. Now we watch them play happily as we rot in prison. Its more than we can bare.

Entry #5 We have been very busy planning our escape and our attack on The Evins. We found some crayons and drew out elaborate plans. If we can only convince The Britney to take us outside we will make our move. Our plan is to use bait, a game called “House”. It's pure torture but it might be worth it for a chance to run. . . if we survive it.

Entry #6 Success! We made it outside the prison walls. During an extra horrible game of House Michael, “The Dog”, cleverly ran away and I, “the eldest son” had to go get him back. We had no intentions of coming back. We ran for it. The Britney threatened tell her queen but Michael cleverly called her a chicken so she joined our ranks. We have a new found ally. . . for now.

Entry #7 We started preparations for war. We have at least 10 snowballs, at least! Well-packed and icy. But unfortunately The Evins have gotten word of our plans. Now they are making their own preparations. We fear the worst. In the last battle we had, only two kids lived. I survived but Michael died.

Entry #8 It's time. The moment we have been dreading is finally here. The Evins requested to speak with our general so I jumped on a horse and rode out to meet them. Kevin made fun of my horse. Kevin! He's so like that. I told him it was The Britney's horse and that's why it is all pink with stupid tassels. This is an insult we cannot bear. It's time for war!

Entry #9 Oh, the horrors of War. I'm drafting a letter to The Britney's Queen Mother.

My Dear Queen,

Your daughter fought brave and true, right to the last. May someday the tragedy of this senseless war appeal to the angels of our better nature.

With Love

General Mayhem

Entry #10 Spoiled! I regret to report that the war was a complete failure! We were so close to victory when The Evins' Queen, Mrs. The Evins, came out with hot cocoa and the promise of grilled cheese. I am shamed to report it but we made a treaty. After all we hadn't had our rations for hours.

Entry #11 Now that the war is over we can bury those we've lost. We had a funeral for The Britney. I gave a eulogy but she didn't like it.

Entry #12 How does an old soldier cope with life after war? We wander the hallways haunted by the memories of battle. There is nothing to sooth our war-torn nerves but cartoons.

Entry #13 The Queen is returning! We will go home as Heroes. The Britney is sad to see us leave. She wants a hug and a kiss goodbye but we know that she has cooties.

Entry #14 It's all over. The day has gone and the night has come. I, the old general, am dying. They have laid me down on my funeral pyre but I know my memory will live on. My Epitaph will forever read:

“He died of cooties.”

The End

Just for fun

2009-10-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

So this was just for fun. actually I ripped it from an illustration from my new book. I thought it was really cool as a stand alone piece. Maybe it could be a label on a bottle or something? Who knows. I just like it when illustration is arranged in a graphic design kinda way. or maybe its the other way around: instead of using Adobe Illustrator to give it that clean logo look, you illustrate logos and hand-letter the type... does that make sense? Either way its the best of both worlds, graphic design and illustration.

NOV GJ's

2009-10-06T12:13:00.001-07:00

The penguin uprising is coming. . . hear you me.

2009-10-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some pages and character design from the new book idea.

New Story Idea

2009-09-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

This is some character design for my next book idea. It has no working title as of yet. Maybe "Adventure Box"?? Its about a girl who thinks her life is not exciting enough so she goes on an adventure inside her adventure box. as long as she is inside the adventure box, she is on an adventure. She brings her little bro along, who has an infectious, fun-loving personality. He ends up having a much better time than she does. the moral of the story: don't take anything for granted. Life, itself is an adventure.

My vision for it is that it will be completely black and white and orange. And, of course, the use of orange is symbolic. Also some imagery reoccurs. Her little brother likes to make drawings that are really just orange scribbles. These drawings he likes to pass out to people along the adventure. According to his older sister, they are just scribbles, according to a world of black and white they are the most beautiful things around.

Hope to get it actually done by January so lets see if it happens. If so I'll let you know!!

More "If You Love Me"

2009-09-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

These are some of my interior pages to my "If You Love Me" dummy book that's just a few pages away from completion. : ) What to with it after it's done? Not sure yet. I'm not in a huge hurry to mail it off to anyone. maybe i'll just show it off at conferences and stuff?? who knows. If you want to know more about the story I wrote and am currently fleshing out you can check my very first post ever on this blog.

Anyway, let me know what you think about the text. It's kind of an experiment but i really like it.

If You Love Me Cover

2009-09-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Gj's October

2009-09-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

An epic penguin brawl over an i-pod. It happens in Antarctica way more often than you'd think.

Sept GJ's Poster

2009-08-20T16:29:00.001-07:00

Forte Communications Cover

2009-08-20T09:43:00.001-07:00

My first real gig as a graphic designer. So fun! quite a challenge too. Hope you enjoy.

Sketchbook Summer 2009

2009-08-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

Just a few pages from the old sketch book I had this summer. Just so you don't think I was slacking off. : )

Danger Beast

2009-05-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

This song is a lullaby for a kid that thinks he's a danger beast. Hope you enjoy.

Commision Work

2009-05-14T09:30:00.001-07:00

These pictures I completed for a local historian that lectures on the Dragoon Springs Massacre which happened just East of Tucson in the Dragoon Mountains. The main character of this crazy onslaught was the only survivor who managed to fight off his attacker. He ended up loosing an arm. Sorry, I know it kinda scary but its history.

Dirty As A Dog

2009-05-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

I stayed at my parent's house over the weekend so I was Photoshop-less!!! But I was able to get a couple pages filled up in my sketchbook and here is my favorite one of the weekend. The bottom half is the bulletin from church that I scribbled on during the service then I pasted it in to the old sketchbook after I got home. The top half is the rest of the day's scribblings. Hope you enjoy.

sketch of the day

2009-05-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

We have a Boston Terrier named Oreo. She's usually crazy but she has valley fever so she's been sleeping a lot. : ( It makes for a good drawing subject though. She sits still for me.

GJ's July show

2009-05-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

The Mermaid

2009-04-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

This picture was loosely based off part of the book Voyage Of The Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, one of the books from the series The Chronicles Of Narnia. There is a moment where Lucy, one of the main characters on an ocean voyage, looks off the side of the boat and sees a mermaid who is a Sheppardess, herding her flock of fish in the shallows of the sea. The whole book is full of great imagery! It's a dream of mine to illustrate this story some day. You know, like a huge hardcover coffee table book that has a beautiful color plate every few pages or so? Something like the Hildebrandt Bros would put out.

GJ's Round Two

2009-04-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

GJ's liked the first so much they're asking for a few more. Here is my second postcard idea. I don't know too much about animals, but I'm pretty sure that out of the whole animal kingdom, gorillas lay down the meanest bass lines.

CASIO PT-1

2009-04-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

So I've been playing somewhere in no man's land between Design and Illustration for a bit now. I think both are so great and I'm starting to see that they don't have to be in such separated schools of art theory. I borrow the clean, smart layouts for my composition from design but then all the life and movement I get from free handing everything. I'm trying to make a statement with this I guess: that Design and Illustration are both very important and neither is better than the other. If i ever take another swing at Fine Art and get a chance to show in a gallery again I'm going to take compositions like this and paint them on huge canvases. Why the CASIO? Because late 70's early 80's design is so sick I love it! LOL so much for being the "intellectual artist".

Mini Bikes

2009-04-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

So have you ever noticed that when kids are drawing cars or tanks or explosions or whatever, they tend make noises resembling their current subject? For example, if they are drawing a dinosaur they roar a lot and spit everywhere. I totally did that while drawing these mini bikes. I caught myself, a number of times, making a noise that semi resembled a tiny motor revving. LOL Okay. . . anyway, this is totally experimental in a number of ways but I think I like what came out. randomly I became obsessed with mini Honda trail bikes. I have no idea why. I thought drawing them might appease this weird materialistic side of me that rears its ugly head every so often.

GJ's Coffee House

2009-04-20T22:02:00.000-07:00

This is for a local venue. I hope they like it. Their mascot is a penguin. I thought this would be appropriate.

Here's a shout out to GJ's:

www.gjscoffeehouse.com
5950 N. La Canada Dr. Tucson, AZ

OV Famers Market

2009-04-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend, Kim and I go out to lunch to a place called Time Market. After lunch one day we perused the grocery isles looking at all the labeling of chocolate bars, canned foods and wine bottles. It was a lot of fun ripping on the bad design but also taking note of the good packaging too. It was a great little field trip and it made me think that it would be a lot of fun to do some poster art for local companies and events. This is a fictional poster idea for a local weekly event called Oro Valley Farmers Market which happens at town hall. I'm not really planning on doing anything with it, just wanted to see if i could do it.

sketch of the day

2009-04-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

Just for a little practice.
Every medium has its 'Happy Accidents'. Digital media has them too. These three different looks I discovered just by turning off a few layers in photoshop. Each one could stand on its own in my opinion. Even the last one. How fun would it be to do a very simple picture book with that style!? What I like about the middle one is the idea of setting flat spot color and outlines over rich background textures. Its very 'Designy'.

robots

2009-04-17T17:43:00.001-07:00

Some of you may ask, "Why robots?"
Then I would answer your question with another question and would ask, "Why not robots!?"
... I believe I have proven my point.

Samson

2009-04-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

I love gleaning inspiration from song lyrics. There are some lyrics out there that are really rich with imagery. I developed this piece from a Regina Spektor song called Samson. Here are some of the lyrics:

Well I cut his hair myself one night
With a pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
And he told me that I done alright
and he kissed me 'til the morning light, he kissed me 'til the morning light. . .

Samson went back to bed
With not much hair upon his head
He ate a slice of WonderBread and went right back to bed

You are my sweetest downfall. I loved you first

Little Red Riding Hood

2009-04-09T09:46:00.001-07:00

One thing I try to do while drawing is take a break to just sit and stare at the piece that I am working on, no matter how far along it is. I try to disconnect myself as the artist and just let the picture take my imagination for rides. I've gotten a lot of great ideas doing this. The idea for this picture was born while staring at the tree I drew for the Peter Pan picture. I love drawing trees. I could draw trees all day.

Another benefit from staring at your drawings is that you get a chance to correct yourself. Sometimes I get carried away with some aspects (like color for example) and forget about others (Like composition and value). That is just what happened with Peter in my opinion. So for this piece I wanted to use a very limited color palette and let the lights and darks of the receding trees take center stage. Yet another lesson I had to learn of how less is often a lot more.

Peter Pan

2009-04-08T08:43:00.001-07:00

Peter Pan is one of my favorite narratives. This illustration was just for therapy. I was working on the rough sketches for the "If You Love Me" dummy book and just needed some color in my life.

Tucson Festival of Books

2009-03-18T00:07:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend was the Tucson Festival of Books which was amazing. so many people, lots of great booths and great authors. I got to sit on a panel with Dave Christiana and Adam Rex, two of my biggest influences. Both great guys. And with our moderator, Lisa Morris Wilkey who was a lot of fun. Cool quote from Adam: when asked which living Illustrators would he like to meet most he said, "None, meeting famous people is never as good as you think it would be." That's probably true, but hanging out with these guys was an exception.

Thanks again, Dave, for getting me in on this. It was a great experience!

You're My Everything

2009-03-17T12:32:00.001-07:00

From a song I wrote called The Lie. I think it's one of my favorite drawings EVER.

You sat alone on the beach counting your shells,
Your mind entranced by the courtship of two killer whales,
You sat alone on the ice but you didn't care,
As you lay freezing to death you braided your hair.

But it's alright. Your hair looks just fine.

It's a lie.
You need me,
You are my,
My Everything.

Wynkin, Blynkin And Nod

2009-03-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

This is an illustration for a Eugene Field poem. Just for fun. I like the moon. He looks like he's having a good night.

If You Love Me - The Voyage

2009-03-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

For the book If You Love Me.
The kid wishes he was a Pirate. But who doesn't, I mean really?

Maybe I should say something interesting... ah the pressure! Okay, for starters I should introduce my next book that I'm working on. (I have one I did before this called The Whisper. You can check it out on AMAZON. ) My newest creation-in-the-works is titled If You Love me, a very fun little story told through the eyes of a boy who wants just a bit more than what life has given him... Okay maybe a lot more. "If you love me," is the sly, slightly manipulative phrase that our main character begins with when requesting things of his poor older brother. And though, yes, his brother does love him, it would be impossible to satisfy his younger brother's very imaginitive whims. The requests start out very innocent (like wanting it to stop raining so they can continue playing) but slowly get more and more ridiculous (Like taking up piracy for the afternoon) as the story goes on. Slowly the story takes a more serious turn as the boy starts bucking horns with real life, his requests are no longer about pirates and airships but more about fitting in at school. His final request is really the heart of the story and, no, I won't tell you what it is. HAHA!

I'm really stoked about getting this one through the dummy book stage and on to the right desk of the right editor... yeah about that. Anyone know of a good rep?

As for the art: 100% Photoshop CS2. I begin with drawing in the out lines with my Intous Wacom Tablet (Bought in 2000... yeah it's really old. But awesome.) as you can see in the top pic. Then I lay in color with textures of old paper that I recolor to my liking. It is semi-paint-by-numbers-ish but very involving, very fun, and there is still room for "Happy Accidents". Anyway, I'll be writig a lot more about the process and the theory behind the look later as I finish more spreads. enjoy. : )