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

[John T]

Cool SB. Lovin' your traditional stuff, great paintings.

My Sketchbook

[sve]

Hello, Craig, sorry for skipping one of the post, but I got very upset that I can't separate your girlfriend from the page of women heads from the last post. And it is even more frustrating that there are not so many types of faces there, probably three or four. And I blame you of course, because you didn't share many personal facts with me. How I'm supposed nail it. Well. here it goes, blind guess. You like drawing girls with straight, light colored hair. You like paint and draw brunette with curvy hair too, but less, and they don't look as sweet as blonds , heheh, how about that? more of it. The piece with girl drawing in the garden looks very personal, very warm. And I kind of doubt you will find many people willing to pose for long. So I think the face with light straight hair is the face of your girlfriend, probably the one with glasses. Wait for the cruel truth hiding my head between my shoulders.

Blue gnat catcher is lovely, digital, but looks traditional, really beautiful painting. Feather textures are nice especially, great illusion, so soft. That's actually the most prominent features of your art, as i see it, delicate, gentle, patient, attentive to details, a bit distanced from the viewer, you don't allow a lot of passion in your images, everything is under control. It is good, btw, be natural, that's the best, I think.
I like your pirate, he does look a bit unusual for common point of view about pirates, like he was forced into this business, too tired already for such a young age. But I like the technical side very much. Especially play of lights on his clothes and sand. I lite this effect so much. And I liked that you didn't go with usual trick to over saturate everything so much, that my eyes hurt after looking at some interpretations of the bright sunny day in other artists paintings. Your is subtle and I like this quality very much, right after variety.
Like his pose and costume a lot. And the face, actually. It is your face in many features, even expression of it, keeping people at distance a bit .

OK, moving to new update. My favorite is the ink landscape, very laconic and has a nice mood. Transferred me right into the middle of the forest, shoeless, into coldness of the melting ice. Lovely painting. the naked trees and the even surface of the snow, better say snow crust, hungry boar, great illusion of early spring, very recognisable, I saved it.

I like the dancing girl geisha too, be you on time with your entry I would vote for yours. I chose the closest to your mood.
I like the skin tones, especially her belly and her face the most, her hands the less. Arms are rendered beautifully. But the dreamy, sweet mood is in kind of a contradiction with very aggressive green, in my opinion. I understand you wanted to say about richness and sweetness of life and all its delight, still looks aggressive to me. I wish the leaf was making semicircle, yeah, it might be overused, but it is kind of symbolic, and send dome signal to brains, association. More of it, round shapes are feminine. The brown textures, I'm not so fond of it. Rough textures and fine drawing. I don't know, too much for me. I still would vote for you, it is actually the only attractive looking geisha except foxoo's version.

Birds paintings are lovely. Now when you show someone less lyrical more decorative, peacock, or pheasant.
See you, Craig, all the best to you.
Sveta

[ah.heng]

are you a bird watcher, craig?

[Lake]

craig, while your art is fantastic, and I love the birds, it seems like you're afraid of feet. The feet I see are jumbled and misplaced, even though the rest of the drawing/painting seems so precise.

The reason I note this is because I do the same thing.

draw us a shoe.

[Pixeldragoon]

Id your gf the one with her tounge stickin out?

[entdroid]

Great stuff Craig!
The birds are awsome! I like the rendering of the metrosexual pirat a lot, but his arms and legs look a bit short.
The Chow entry is very nice, although maybe the bg is way too dark.
Keep 'em coming!

[Craig Houghton]

john - Many thanks.

sve -
Your post had me really thinking, on a number of counts. First off, the looker with the cat ears is my girlfriend. But, your critical thinking really had me looking over my usual suspects. It's sometimes hard to notice patterns like that without someone taking the time to help point em out. btw, the girl in the garden was my brother's girlfriend, but you were on the right track.
You're very right about this: "delicate, gentle, patient, attentive to details, a bit distanced from the viewer, you don't allow a lot of passion in your images, everything is under control" TO me though, a lot of that represents everything I dislike about my work. I realize that those traits can be virtues, but what I want most out of art is a means of expression and an outlet for passion -- there's something about my work to date that is a far cry short from what I hope to acheive. It's funny, but a lot of the art I do that I like, I very rarely post. It's the messy expressive stuff that I usually like best, but there's a part of me that can't seem to let the world in on it, as if I'm too afraid of sharing something that might not be well received by everyone. Part of this is that I just haven't come far enough for my quick expressive work to match up to my slower patient stuff. Really though, there must be an element of fear involved. Either way, I'm working on it. I still want the patient & the subtle in my work, but I also want the missing elements of passion and personal immediacy. Years back I managed to merge the two in my fiction writing, and I hope to get there with art as well.
Btw, I'll probably be adding an arc to that leaf design behind the dancer -- I like the idea. Also, you're right about the red texture. Well, before that, I think I'll have to tackle some sort of 'showy' bird.

ah.heng - you bet. i usually birdwatch though with the intent of photographing them. Nonetheless, I have been 'birding' for about 6 months now.

panda - Many thanks and I'll make an effort to put my best foot forward get it, foot.. ugh bad pun

pixel - She's wearing the cat ears.

entroid - Yeah, for a metro pirate, he's definitely too stocky. Many thanks btw.

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

two feet


no feet


more feet


Thanks for looking,
Craig

[Lake]

*groan* that pun was absolutely terrible.

Good feet; glad to see you working on them. If you look closely at the last pic, you can see what I mean. On the second set of feet from the left, they're a little flat and a little small when compared to the ankles. Are these from life?

[Craig Houghton]

It certainly looks that way. I recall last night though that the ankles in the ref looked fairly freakish to me. I might have played it up a bit, but I think this might be a case of individual variation combined with the way the individual was mid-step. It's funny to me how funky feet are. They're like malformed little hands fused to articulating wedges.

-Craig

[entdroid]

Those feet studies are really nice!
I think the big toe in the first one on the left is a little long maybe, but i'm totally being nitpicky here
good work!

entdroid

[sve]

Hello, well strictly speaking, hands evolved later on than feet. S o I would say the hands are malformed, or (lets be proud of our human race) refined and differentiated to perform more complex function feet.
I knew I would put foot in my mouth before head with this guessing game about face of your girlfriend, but it was fun. I just want to apologise to your lovely girlfriend. Brunettes rule , forever and ever, besides, they said, the best blonds are colored brunettes. .

I like your manner to talk though art, Craig, I too want this to stay. I like the fact that everyone is so different. The subtle manner to talk is a rarity. Your art is not indifferent and cold, not at all, just not the direct and impulsive. I remember seeing your art and Hurricane's and I think it was steaktrone's life drawings, in Sofa forum. I remember thinking, what a great artwork, how interesting. I even wrote a comment to you after you posted upside down nude figure painting there, because you looked more approachable with your art, warmer. It was very passionate painting , btw. And all portraits of your girls, all Chows including the deal with them, oh, it is not that simple as it seems. They are very likeable, very manipulative, they do mess with viewer mind, I can assure you. Just in very subtle, fine manner. For people who appreciate the finesse it is unbeatable quality.

I would like to see you talking differently though. You showed me these bright-colored abstracts awhile ago. That was fun to see. About fear, well, lets do it like Scarlett O'Hara from "Gone with the wind" did . lets think what bad could happen. Some virtual personalities might not like them. They might write about their pain to you. They might even say what exactly they don't like, and that's an information you might find useful. On the other end you will continue your experiments without any follow-up and some event will pass you without you acknowledging it.
Well, again I talked too much. I wish I was able to say less but enough.


And all feet and shoes look very nice to me. They don't have to look impeccable for me. I know that there is beauty in making perfect cast or bargue. but honestly, I don't get it. Not mature enough.

See you.
Sveta

[Craig Houghton]

ent - Many thanks.

Sve - I appreciate you reminding me that I shouldn't rush by all those things that work -- and you're right. there shouldn't be any harm to setting aside my apprehensions about posting less than prime-time stuff. Thank you for putting things in perspective.

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

I didn't really have any time for art today, but I paused The Life Aquatic and did a drawing that I later brought into Painter.

pen drawing is only 2 inches high
[edited -- thx ent]

original http://www.leversandpulleys.com//uploads/z_small.JPG
steve zissou

he has a big ear, but hey, so do i

-Craig

[entdroid]

Well, I'm learning these days that sometimes when you make faster stuff, your "weaker spots" are evidenced, and this is not necessarely (sp?) a bad thing, 'cause it lets you work harder on those weak areas.
I think overall shape is nice in this one [nitpicky crit: maybe the nose's point (is it called tip?) should be pointing a bit more tho the left], but I noticed in this picture that you sometimes tend to do the lighter parts of your coloured stuff (also in the hawaian geisha) a bit too white and the shadows of the skin too brownish, and I noticed it because I do it too, and I'm currently fighting with it, I'm such a color-coward

So I give you this advice: Add more colors, make the lights pinkier or more orange and add some blue or purple to the shadows, play with color!!!

Hope it helps, keep up the good work!
entdroid

[Craig Houghton]

entroid - great advice! Many thanks.

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

the SSG XXV combined sb topic of the week is fairy dragons w/ fuzzy tails -- i managed this almost on-topic fellow this evening. it's not exactly a dragon and the tail isn't so much fuzzy as it is hairy. Also, I planned on doing the basic lines and bringing it into painter, but my tablet is acting up. So, I made do with some pastels


I might do a painted version at some point to see if I can't pretty em' up.

Thanks for looking!

-Craig

[seth1]

Great work Craig. It's allways nice to see some new art work from you.. Keep pushing and posting mate.

[Lake]

I REALLY like the smaller face painting - the pattern is a bit repetetive though.

[Spade]

wow man, amazing stuff, the colours are vibrant and interesting. Some of your textures are fantastic, really inspiring art!

[entdroid]

I really like that last addition! Is it inspired by kiwis (the birds, I mean)?
The colors are very nice in that one

Keep up the good work!

entdroid

[Ferg]

those foot studies came out lookin good. I also really like that small buffalo piece, nice simple scene, great aesthetic qualities.

Keep workin on those life drawings / anatomy, and them birdy paintins are right swell too

[Craig Houghton]

Seth - Good to see you. I just checked out your thread and it's looking great. I'll post tomorrow when I'm not falling asleep at the keyboard.

ent - Many thanks. It's hard to say, but it's possible that it's kiwi inspired since I seem to have a serious bird fetish

Spade - I appreciate it. Many thanks.

Ferg - Although I'm not quite sure why, I too have a thing for the quicky buffalo. Usually I'm luke-warm at best about my stuff. Gracias.

Panda - Many thanks. Yeah, the texture is straight from the stained paper and my tablet was acting goofy at the time.

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

Today's update is a bit different. Follow the link for some of my photography.

Click Here for My Photography Thread!

And, here's one of the forty or so in the thread:

Female American Goldfinch in Winter Plumage


Thanks for looking!
Craig

[Lake]

not being a photographer, I'm sorry to say I can't really crit you on these. But they look cool.

[Craig Houghton]

Panda - Gracias. As for photo crits, I wouldn't know where to begin myself.

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

This evening I broke out the solder and repaired my tablet's pen. It's actually working again. So, I revisited the hooknose for a quick for-better-or-worse finish-up


and I was testing out Golden's Retarder on some fluid acrylics


Thanks for looking!
Craig

[enthombed]

great work, i like the birds stuf here dude, i like so much this little creatures, uhu, this pic is great too, hummm i feel need draw this dude, lol, when i finish i show to you bud, tnks for show this picture.

Cheers

Icaro.

[entdroid]

Both are great, but I like the last one the most. Great mood, beautiful texture!
I absolutely hate the type choices on the first one though

Keep 'em coming!
entdroid

[ah.heng]

that last bird is so good, only thing i can say is that the snow doesn't feel right.

[enthombed]

Hey Craig, here is the drawing, tnks for show to us this picture .

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...passarinho.jpg

I hope you like.

See ya

[Shylone_Breath]

i didn't see your sketchbook until now..what a pity for me ! your studies are very very very nice . you are quiet good in every discipline in you "art" in painting, drawing and so on . it's very inspiring.

[Craig Houghton]

enthombed - Nice! I love it. Feel free to use any of my photos from the photo thread as well.

Entroid - I never have good luck when it comes to type choices. Many thanks btw

ah.heng - Thx. And, I'll take another look at the snow.

shylone - I really appreciate it. I do end up working a bit in just about every medium, and I'm glad to hear you're liking it.

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

I tried to finish up a watercolor figure by this evening, but I didn't manage to finish it up or get it to the point where I'd be willing to post the wip So, in the mean time:

I've been working on a t-shirt illustration for the New Haven Bird Club. I only have 1 out of five planned birds done thus far, but here's a portion of the wip


the bird in the center is from their actual logo below. I figured the 'living' birds around the logo-bird in the center might look interesting


eventually it'll look something like this chickenscratch here



and that jumbled ref-less claw below was supposed to be a hand, but nonetheless here's some playing around. ugh. i should have at least cleaned up some of the unintentional smudging. Nonetheless..



Thanks for looking!

Craig

[faux pas]

great stuff, wish I could be of more help

Also I just got a chance to look at your site, really like some of your work there. I think my favorite is the watercolor of the vulture for some reason. I like triffle at the waters edge too.

[Matt Smith]

You have some really nice bird sketches, especially the falcon portrait, it kicks ass. Keep up the good work.