Answers to some frequently asked questions.

So I just finished watching Dirty Harry, and I have a cup of coffee circling the soon to be dismantled Christmas tree. I have a couple of questions that come up all the time, and I'll try to answer them in this journal. Maybe not all at once, but I'll try and get to them all within a few days.

Important facts about me - some of my favorite movies are To Kill a Mockingbird, Time Cop, North by Northwest, Glory, Zorro the Gay Blade, Laura, The Verdict, Meatballs, Once Upon a Time in the West, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Cowboys, The Air Raid Wardens, Kelly's Heroes, Universal Soldier, Three Kings, High Plains Drifter, any version of Little Women, any movie about a submarine, and pretty much any horror movie ever made.

My favorite color is a very specific green that has a bit of white and yellow and blue mixed with it. California Forest service trucks are painted in almost exactly the green I'm talking about. But if the color choice is for something critical, like a climbing rope or a vehicle, I will pick blue. Specifically a deep navy blue. When I was little I had a kite that was the same blue. My brother and sister lost their kites, but mine always returned from it’s flights safe and sound. Since then I’ve always considered that color lucky.

I don't smoke for several reasons. The biggest reason is that no one in my family smoked cigarettes. The second biggest reason is that I am a product of the Colorado public school system, and they did a great job of convincing me that cigarettes were bad. And lastly, now that I am an adult and can make my own decisions, I don't smoke because I know myself well enough to know I'd get hooked like everybody else. That would be bad enough, but I also know I'd take the whole thing too far. Within six months I'd be wearing smoking jackets, and using one of those long cigarette holders like Cruella uses. I'm like the character Toad from The Wind in the Willows - always seized by some mania which I take too far, that I then trade in for a different craze a year or so later. My garage is filled with the evidence of this disorder. I don't have one kayak - I have three. Oh, wait. Make that four. They hang above a metal cabinet filled with ghost hunting equipment. Next to the cabinets of rocks and powders I use to polish them into piles of shiny smooth stones. Next to the shelves of caving gear and carbide lamps and snake hooks snake grabber tongs and... well it goes on and on. Actually, most all this stuff is in storage now, as I'm on a quest to simplify my surroundings.

I ride bikes a lot. I am better at climbing hills than I am at going fast on flat roads. I cannot juggle despite several attempts to learn, and I want to unicycle even though the sight of me with one would alienate everyone I know because they would suspect that if I learned to unicycle, becoming an actual circus clown couldn't be far behind. I have several recurring dreams, and oddly, one recurring character that threads through unrelated dreams. I can report one actual paranormal experience when I was a teenager, that I now know could be classified as a poltergeist. I was witness to the incident, but it wasn't centered around me, it occurred right next to my younger sister, which I have since learned is quite the way of poltergeists.

I want to see a ghost but know that I'd freak out if I did. If I saw a translucent lady wandering a bayou dressed like she was from Gone With the Wind, or encountered a child floating down an old hotel's hallway, I'd probably run straight through a wall leaving a Chris-shaped hole behind.

I was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and lived most of my life in Arvada, which is near Denver. I draw because my dad drew and painted. When I was a kid, there was always a supply of pencils, paint and paper available that I could occupy myself with. My dad once told me that there was a limit to what you could build, but that you could draw anything. Every Friday my dad, brother and sister and I would sit at the dining room table and paint together. We used Blackwing pencils to draw, which my dad would bring home from the office because that's just the standard pencil they stocked. I've recently searched the house for them but can't find any.

My drawing table is pretty basic. I keep it flat because I drew at a kitchen table when I was growing up, so drawing on a flat surface is what I like. I have four lamps that are clamped to the back of the table, but I'm going to increase it to six. When I was in the Florida studio I couldn't help but notice the background painters had around six to eight lamps per table. The light output was incredible, and I noticed how much better they could see what they were doing. There's no law that limits you to one lamp; the more light, the better you see. I use Faber Castell Polychromos pencils to draw, because they're soft and thick. I tend to snap the tips off and rub the ends down before I sketch because the end will snap off anyway, and I like having a wedge that I can roll to the side if I suddenly need a thinner line. I draw on heavy paper, and I prefer it to have a smooth or plate surface - any sort of texture sucks life from the line.

I used to have trouble inking until a fellow artist caught me at it, and commented that the brush I was using was cheap. He advised me to spend some money and get a real sable brush. There are few things that you can say will instantly make you a better artist, but this was one that did. Now I ink with Winsor Newton Series Seven Sable brushes, number one or two. I watercolor with the same brushes. They can be mashed flat, drawn into a razor point, or shaped into a wedge. They last forever if...and this is important, if you use a brush soap on them when you're done. The soap gets the media out of the bristles, and if you leave it in and draw the brush to a point, it will dry to a hard state and keep the bristles shaped and conditioned.

I use Winsor Newton Black Indian Ink. There are two types they sell - one has a dragon on the label, the other has a spider. Specifically, a spider-man sort of character that is drawing a web. I only use the one with the spider. Even though both types claim they are permanent, only the one with the spider will never budge after it dries. It's also the blackest of the two, drying to a perfect black finish with no hint of blue or red. I use it because I saw that Wallace Tripp uses it.

If I use a pen, I use the simple quill type. I like to collect different pen tips, and identify my favorites.

It's pretty basic, but it's the ink crowd that I admire most. T. S. Sullivant, Charles Schultz, Arthur Rackham, Carl Barks, Frank Frazetta...

Okay, I'll call it here because I have most of the day to draw and I want to get to it. Sorry for this going long!