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

**blanquish** · June 10th, 2006, 04:24 AM

these are great, nice to keep it daily- really shows if you have genuine talent
keep em coming bro

**entdroid** · June 10th, 2006, 12:17 PM

Nice update Craig!

I like your illustration for the New Haven Bird Club a lot, but I think it's too busy on the upper-left and a little empty in the opposite place, and since upper left is the first place we look at (at least, for western people), it appears to have a very strong focal point there and then loses some interest when the eye wanders further (not sure if I'm making myself clear here, I hope you get what I mean). The birds themselves are gorgeus, though.

The girl sketches are really nice! My only crit is this: the neck of the girl lifting her hand has too many shaded lines, and this gives it a wrinkled appereance, it almost looks like an old lady's neck on a young girl.

Oh and don't worry too much about my type comment, I just really can't help those being a graphic designer and (on top of that) a typography geek

As a matter of fact, I was going to say something about that copperplate gothic bold of the new haven logo... and then I read you're just making an illustration over it

So I decided to just keep my mouth shut.

Keep it up, it's always nice to see your updates!
entdroid

**Craig Houghton** · June 11th, 2006, 07:01 AM

faux pas - Many thanks. If I ever get around to it I'll finish that trifle's story

matt - Thank you. I appreciate it.

blanquish - the daily posting gets a bit crazy, but it's definitely a way to avoid working in a vacuum. Many thanks.

ent - Great crits. I agree about the composition. I think I had circles those elements in the upper left for that reason even, but it's been a bit since I did that initial layout, and it slipped my mind. Many thanks.The neck crit is very useful btw. As for the typography, if they hadn't already picked the copperplate gothic nold, I'd probably have picked something twice as bad.

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i rushed this through, but it was one of those nights where you just want to move on to something else

Thanks for looking!

Craig

**entdroid** · June 11th, 2006, 07:34 PM

This is great Craig! I love it! I see you've been using colder colors in the shadows

The cheeks and lips could use a pinkier hue though, but it's awsome nonetheless. Great great job!

Keep posting!
entdroid

**ah.heng** · June 13th, 2006, 04:36 PM

i love her expressions.
her right arm seems to be rather thin and flat. the little shadow beneath the bellybutton is very distracting too, i can't seem to pull my eyes away from it.

**Craig Houghton** · June 13th, 2006, 11:48 PM

Ent -Many thanks. I took the color advice to heart and changed up the palette.

ah - I agree about that navel - hadn't noticed that thing

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experimenting a bit this evening..

Thanks for looking!

-Craig

**entdroid** · June 14th, 2006, 10:39 AM

Craig: I'm glad my advice halped!

On this last update, I love the expression of the bigger face, very sexy and yet innocent.
The full body drawing is a bit too skinny, I can see that it was intentional that she was really thin, but I think it's a bit too much, it's not nice to see a fairy with an eating disorder

just kidding.

Keep posting!
entdroid

**Merge** · June 14th, 2006, 10:46 AM

Dear mr Craig Houghton,

Thanks for giving me something to aspire to. Keep the juices flowing please.

**comixnut** · June 14th, 2006, 09:02 PM

You just keep getting better and better. I honestly think we have seen you grow in this thread and it's pretty cool. You elf looks awesome and i have to say that i actually like her skinyness. Makes it a little mor eut of this world!

**faux pas** · June 15th, 2006, 09:30 PM

Awsome job on the elf, I also think the gangly limbs look great. It suits it perfectly.

**Craig Houghton** · June 17th, 2006, 08:23 AM

Ent - I'll see if I can't convince her to keep some of it down.

Many thanks.

Merge - I really appreciate that. Thank you.

comixnut - Glad to hear from you. Thanks for the kind words.

faux pas - Thanks. I think I might revisit her.

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I've been away/stuck working on things other than art for two days. I finally had a chance to play a bit last night. Ah well -- two days away from art drives me crazy.

just having some fun

and, getting the hang of this mutt for the 'kids' book I'm attempting, Dog on Wheels (hopefully I'll get it done over the weekend)

Thanks for looking!

Craig

**Spade** · June 17th, 2006, 08:50 AM

Really nice colours on that last peice, making a book? sounds interesting, you should post some of the stuff you have to do for it

anyhow stuff is looking great. keep posting~!

**ah.heng** · June 19th, 2006, 03:03 PM

that's a very interesting portrait craig, is that charcoal?
the highlight on the right eye feels off if we were to compare with left eye.

i think the elf is great, but that one on the lower left, her right arm looks a little too stiff. the upper torso also seems to be twisted too much, too straight, considering the direction of the waist and hips. the head seems to be floating, maybe it could be lowered a little.

the rest are great, especially those eyes.

**entdroid** · June 20th, 2006, 10:31 PM

This last update is very nice!
The expressions on the dogs are great! Not so sure about the proportions in the body of the first one from the left though.
And I really really love the girl's portrait, but I think the background texture is not working so well, it competes with the linework too much on my opinion.
Keep posting!
entdroid

**Lake** · June 22nd, 2006, 02:05 PM

Haha, I love the dogs! The portrait as well is nice, but it looks like you ran it through four different photoshop filters (I could be wrong; just saying what I'm seeing)

The sketches of the elf girl are masterfully done, but the lower torso looks very unplanned and just 'slapped' in. Think about all the anatomy that you know when drawing that part of the body and I'm sure it will show.

**Craig Houghton** · June 24th, 2006, 04:21 PM

Spade - Many thanks. I'll definitely post the work as I do it. I'm putting the project off for a bit though. I couldn't seem to pull off the style I was looking for.

ah.heng - Yep, charcoal over napkin. Many thanks for the crits.

Ent - Yeah, that fellow does look a bit short-bodied. The bg is definitely busy, but I hated the charcoal so I left it.

Panda - Gracias. No, no filters -- it's hard to believe, but other than erasing some areas using painter to bring out lighter spots, it's actually an unmodified scan of a napkin used to clean my watercolor palette.

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painter practice going for some hyper-realism

some character work

tunnel in Hamden

Thanks for looking!

Craig

**Lake** · June 24th, 2006, 05:26 PM

haha, nice.

by the way - the first image - fantastic. I suggest blurring the edges (and not just smudging them) to achieve a soft focus effect.

**entdroid** · June 24th, 2006, 06:56 PM

I love this last update! Very good stuff, I like the tunnel piece the most.
Just one thing: Is that character based on the others you made on your last few posts? Because if not, looks much alike, so maybe you should try different facial features. That aside, it's great!

**Cernew** · June 26th, 2006, 10:05 AM

The flower in the last post came out REALLY NICE!
Nice Sketchbook!

**ah.heng** · June 26th, 2006, 03:35 PM

the flowers fooled me 1st time round. i only noticed it was a sketch when i looked at your seal and realised the background was painted.

**Craig Houghton** · June 27th, 2006, 01:47 AM

panda - many thanks. i should actually revisit the bg and softer edges

ent - thank you. and, you're right. I keep taking the safe way out when it comes to faces and sticking with what I know. i'm guilty of it again today.

cernew - glad you like!

ah.heng - I'll take that as a compliment. Many thanks.

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WIP collaborative with sonia hansman (gf - she usually does faeries and other such fantasy things) I'm doing the underdrawing/most of the concept and she's taking over for the painting.

The drawing is light and non-rendered as it's on the watercolor paper as a prep for Sonia to do her thing -- the heavier lines will most likely lift when she uses masking fluid etc. There's pigment liner here and there as well to keep the detail as she works.

Thanks for looking!

Craig

**Idiot Apathy** · June 27th, 2006, 02:17 AM

Really impressive birds man, cheers!

**SanXavier** · June 27th, 2006, 02:21 AM

beautiful colors on the farm sketch!

**mentler** · June 27th, 2006, 08:46 AM

Great action for the little Fairy

**Craig Houghton** · July 3rd, 2006, 01:37 AM

Idiot Apathy - Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.

SanXavier - Many thanks.

Mentler - Glad to see you here. Many thanks.

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kestrel hatchling -- acrylic 7x9 awww

-Craig

**Craig Houghton** · July 5th, 2006, 08:43 PM

Sonia Hansman finished up her half of the collaborative.

Click here for the full image (this is a collaborative w/ Sonia Hansman. I did the drawing and she did the painting.)

-Craig

**mentler** · July 7th, 2006, 11:26 PM

Like the small acrylic of the hatching a bunch

**Craig Houghton** · July 9th, 2006, 09:48 PM

Mentler - Many thanks. Yer dropping by twice on the same page -- I'm a bit honored!

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I'll refine and touch-up (and maybe add some tats) if I still can manage it, but here's my semi-WIP submission for the C.H.O.W this week

The topic is Orc Female Beauty. According to the chow descrip she has a dwarven consort. blurb below is my own.

From the Journal of Hop Wheatly, Barkeep - At first I made my way over there to throw them out. I run a clean place. No Orcs. Then, I shut up. She was beautiful. I jammered a bit, but my jaw was loose and I stopped trying. She could stay, anytime. It was that poor excuse for a dwarf that I wanted to toss. I didn't of course, because then she'd leave too. I couldn't risk that.

-Craig

**gauss** · July 9th, 2006, 11:26 PM

good work on the Orc piece. the choice of perspective and the little descriptive blurb work well together, somehow suggesting that the POV is that of a very big character indeed. perspective is strongest, and there's some nice detail (the orc in question is definitely fetching!

)

what was your workflow for this piece? the faces, particularly the Dwarf's, make me think it was set up in 3d and then heavily amended in PS, or possibly photo ref, since it's definitely a tricky perspective. just curious.

my main crit would be that the piece is brought down by the shading on the two characters, which is done mostly with black. there's some nice color on her shoulder there on the left, but the arms of both characters stick out unfavorably because of the shading. it's a strong piece, but i think there are several elements that are worthy of further refinement.