Sketches and Studies by Craig Houghton - [11/16]

[sone_one]

nice work overall... but damn your watercolors are sexy!

[Craig Houghton]

comixnut - thanks for the kind words. It feels slow going at times (..most), but I enjoy the ride.Btw, that half-orc was from the DSG

sone_one - many thanks -- i aim for sexy

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well, finally.. some drawing from life!

my gf and I are starting up with a new local drawing group. it's been a year since the last (my first) group. the models (two of em) were terrific.

from life - 4, 5 min gestures


after the gestures we moved to a multiple session pose. next week we'll continue with it. I'm not so sure I like carrying a work over between sessions, so I'll probably just draw from a number of different angles.

thanks for looking

-Craig

[Nineveh]

How could I have missed this?!?!?! Great stuff man, your figure studies are especially great. Hope to see much more.

[corky13]

uiii good work man
The watercolors are awesome but i can see some proportional issues here and there regarding the head. Nothing major of course

[Craig Houghton]

Nineveh - Many thanks for the kind words! There'll definitely be more.

corky13 - Glad you like em! And, yeah there's been some head issues. (not counting the tinwoman which is a whole other story

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This was from today's DSG

The topic was: Gnome Wizard.

I figured that there must be female gnomes out there right? in the d&d descrip gnomes are 3 ft tall stout fellows with brown-white hair and bright blue eyes. This one happens to be a female wiz

Here we see Snappledap the Dazzling using her famous snap charm to distract some unlucky foe while she brings the sling around to brain em'!

Ink drawing w/ Painter IX


here's a full-res detail



I'll save the background, and it'll be a dark one to help with the glow etc, for another day. I spent way too long on this, but I enjoyed it. I'll probably also texture a bit.

So, yep a background is on the way.

Thanks for looking!
Craig

[rodrigo!]

nice work man! i think her feet couldve been better though.

[Craig Houghton]

Rodrigo - THanks. Yeah, it's true about her feet. They're small too, but perspective-wise they're down-below. They definitely needed more attention. They were bare with sandals at one point, but the toes were wonky so she got a cloth wrap.

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I did a quicky for today's DSG

The topic was: D&D Character, Human Rogue

I had too much fun with the Grainy Sketcher pen in Painter IX


p.s. another nude charcoal study is in the works

-Craig

[Craig Houghton]

Second update this evening - just some little things..



and these



Thanks for looking.
-Craig

[Craig Houghton]

Well, I've been working on this a half-hour here and there for about ... half a year. It's getting a bit closer to finished, so I'm posting a so-far

6x11 Colored Pencil on Arches Hot Press
Copy after William Bouguereau's Twilight/Evening Mood


so close now

-Craig

[Craig Houghton]

Hey all. Today the DSG topic was Drow (Evil) Elf.

I didn't go with the usual dual sword weilding drow with token spider in the background. This is a drow-chick with her diary. Hey, at least the ink looks more or less bloody

Pencil sketch colored in Painter


-Craig

[enthombed]

Cool dude, i see your first pic and see one magic the gattering player, eheheh i really love this game, eheheh (i win some tourney in my city with a necro deck) a long time ago eheheh. cool stuff.

cya

[liam.c]

life drawings looking really good man !
try makeing a copy of the lifedrawings and fooling around in painter maby with the oil brushes might be fun expearment !!the imposto landscape one is real cool try some thing like that on your lifedrawings see waht happens !

[Craig Houghton]

enthombed - Thanks for looking. Yep, Magic is a great game.

liam - Many thanks. I appreciate it. I might try that btw.

-------------------------------

Today's DSG topic was "Trapped in a Bottle"

Painter IX - I'm not happy with it, but my goal was only to get some practice in while finishing my DSG entry.


hrmm. I need to fix/finish up the bottle cap.

-Craig

[Craig Houghton]

From Life

2 min gestures



5 min



60 min - there were two of them together, but she was fidgety. i focused on the male for a change



-Craig

[Icey]

in the first 2 ones you have disproportions...
the hands are too small... and too thin...
the last one is better! but the shadding on the arm and the shadow of the arm on the body are the same - and that's bad in reading the plans...

the copy after bouguereau is the best i've seen! He is one of my favorit artists! Good inspiration...

[rodrigo!]

yea i agree the Bouguereau is looking great, the water and that backgreound area look stunning!!!

[Craig Houghton]

Icey - THanks so much for the thoughtful critiques! I appreciate it. Yes, the first two are disproportionate. With such short poses I worried more about the gesture, but I'll try and keep things more proportionate. In the last one I ran out of time before I could start going over the whole thing with another layer of darks. It's so odd to me having time restrictions. Thanks again! And, glad you like the Bouguereau.

Rodrigo - Thanks! I'm looking forward to seeing it finished. It's very small. You'd think I'd be done by now. Well, there's layers though etc..

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Just a sketch I used, terribly, in yesterday's DSG..

a little sketch of a walnut boat like I used to make when I was a little person


-Craig

[Craig Houghton]

nothing to see here really. I was playing around with some little birds and learning the difference between palmate and anisodactyl toes.



-Craig

[Craig Houghton]

some more fun

here's an..

Over-ended Crooner from the Plane of Limbo

Painter IX and a sketch


this was my first C.O.W. entry. i didn't plan on doing one, but it happens to fit, so I went with it

-Craig

[charcoalArtist]

Hi Craig, your life studies are very impressive and you are getting quite good in painter. I have a quick question If I may... how do you get such detail on the face on your charcoal/conte drawings when you work in an 8x10 page? do you use a really sharp charcoal pencil?

[Craig Houghton]

I'll probably do a little WIP soon. In the mean time, yes, it's just sharp. Well, there are two things to that. The paper needs to have some tooth, but it really has to be a fairly smooth surface. Otherwise, you pretty much have to work larger to get the same level of detail. And, beyond that, I use a sharpened (then blunted on scrap) "Hard" charcoal pencil. It's the HB from General's that seems to kick Derwent and the rest to the curb.

Then, I work slowly, really slowly (as in an extra finger from my off-hand on the tip of the pencil to steady). Once I have the contours in place I work outword and develop the values. When it comes to something critical, like the face, I almost stipple. Things like the nose etc are literally dotted as I sort of press the charcoal into the paper lightly. It's pretty easy when you go slowly, and once I'm away from the danger zones I do the same thing, but less quickly and with some light dragging across the surface of the paper.

Also, things move from light to dark. In the beginning everthing is very light, and once the drawing is perfect, then I move the nab the contours and build up the values.

I have a secret weapon though.. it's an electric eraser. Don't knock it till you try it. Things like the nose (you have no idea how I hate em) are often erased and redrawn ten times. Oh, and the best working surface I've found is Arches Hot Press 90lb paper that's been wet on both sides with water and or ink. Once it dries it has more tooth, but it's still nice and smooth texture-wise. It also holds up to heavy erasing and scans well.

I hope this helps. It's sort of a silly process, and it never feels very creative at the time. It's great for studies though. It forces me to think my ass off about the subject.

-Craig

[Craig Houghton]

Today's DSG topic was:

DSG 714: Character: An H.P.Lovecraft-inspired Nobleman/woman

so, I managed this

Evening Call (of the cthulhu) 7B pencil drawing colored in painter IX


-Craig

[Craig Houghton]

a little scrap paper hippo for the DSG (topic was something along the lines of an upright hippo)

http://img207.exs.cx/img207/9843/chubbyhippo0ni.jpg

been busy working on my i.d.m entry

-Craig

[Johann de Venecia]

Love that!

Exquisite stuff you got here, Craig. I love your take on Bouguereau's painting as well as several of your life sketches. Very detailed work, quite far from your DSG postings although those are good too.

Keep up the great work. I'll see you int he DSG. Goodluck with your IDM too.

[bizarre]

damn. high-quality stuff, man.

good to see. good to see.

[Craig Houghton]

lukavi - thanks so much. it's great to get support like that. yep, seeya in the dsg

biz - many thanks. glad you like. seeya in the channel

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Life drawing class this evening. I didn't scan the gestures -- my scanner has been acting up this evening

pen from life

and

charcoal from life


both were longer poses. I'm not sure if i'll try scanning the gestures again this evening.

Thanks for looking,
Craig

[rodrigo!]

cool man good to see u getting back into life drawing.

[Craig Houghton]

I've been working on my Thunderdome space kitten challenge for way too long. I'm fairly sick of it. This evening I wasted a lot of time playing with Open Canvas, and then I read some tutorials and otherwise goofed off.

I also procrastinated from the TD by doing a charcoal study from ref. I've been meaning to try using a lot of white for a while now.

4x6 charcoal/generals white charcoal on stained paper


Thanks for looking!
Craig

[Craig Houghton]

rodrigo - thx man

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i finished up my tdome entry. I'm not happy with it, but it's over and done with. There's too much dead-space, some things don't 'read' as what they are, and there's all sorts of cheesy-effect issues. Anyhow, I originally wanted to do something fairly fun etc, but it ended up far too tight.

From "steampunk space kittens" tdome challenge here. Hopefully a voting thread will be up soon as well. Feel free to send a vote my way

Arrival of the Space Kittens - Professor M and his assistant successfully managed to open a hole to another time and space, but they never expected kittens, armed space kittens.



and a detail shot

Now that the challenge is over.. it's time for fun stuff again.

Thanks for looking,
Craig

[Craig Houghton]

I spent Saturday drawing my ass off, but it was all pure-practice studies from various art books. I piled up a stack of papers and learned quite a bit.

Then, later Saturday night I did this quick concept for the cow (topic was dream/nightmare-eater):



Thanks for looking,
Craig