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

[sve]

Hello, Craig. I like this sketch very, very much!. It has so much interesting qualities: humor, great similarity, varied lines, texture, good expression of the face, lack of constraint. I know you'll say it's silly but I love some imperfections in artist's work. It shows his soul. I mean one artist tends to do one slight distortion, other artist - something totally different. So the jawline doesn't matter to me.
So how come you're not blond anymore.
That's good you're busy. Meaning I hope your art is appreciated. I think you deserved it. You are very talented and dedicated to art. That's a winning combination
Regards, Sveta

[Flaskpost]

Great updates! Especially the young you and the self portraits! I´ve been trying to do some of those. Damn hard it is!
All the best to you!


Update soon man!

[lexdan90]

wow craig, that interesting stuff here. it got better from the beginning. i like the young girl beceause i like young people and beceause it looks like so realistic
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=562027

[Craig Houghton]

sve - THanks sve. I'm looking forward to eventually turning the corner from a student of technique, to one who can really make use of that technique to actually say what they want to say. Many thanks. And yeah, I didn't realize how blond that paper made me look.

Flaskpost - Thanks! Glad you like em'

lexdan90 - Thanks -- I really do enjoy drawing kids. Well, birds too. Not sure what they have to do with each other, but they're similar for me

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A friend of mine has managed to reproduce. It's weird since I've known him for so long, and seeing him transition entirely into a different phase of his life is a bit unsettling. Nonetheless, it really did make me smile to see him achieving something he's been wanting and working towards for so long.

I didn't have a lot of time to work with today, so I worked small 5x7. I played up the tag etc to stress that this is a very, very new kid. Years from now this won't look anything like the child, more like a generic baby, but the point would be that it's the new father with the new kid. It's from a couple of refs from a batch of photos he just sent. She was born this sunday.



Thanks for looking
-Craig

[Zebz]

It certainly is strange watching our friends grow up isn't it? My two best friends are now married and my little brother married and expecting his first child in November. Sometimes I feel as if I'm standing still and the world is just whirling past me. I suppose I should just remain patient for my turn. It will be that much better and I'll have plenty of other's experiences to learn from by the time I get there. Anyhow... nice drawing. You should give it your friend. I'll bet he'd really love it.

[sve]

I like it. Peaceful. The careful shading emphasized it.
Sveta

[Pixeldragoon]

Painting and toned paper drawing (collectivley) are awesome. Good job!

Now draw- DRAW like the wind- before you shoot yourself!

[Craig Houghton]

zeb - I don't think I _want_ my turn gave it to my friend btw (and his wife), and he seems to really love it.

sve - thanks!

Pixeldragoon - glad you like em. i'll do my best to keep the firearms out of reach

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last-minute cow entry

The Twig-Tailed Beetle-Snatcher

Here we see the voracious snatcher downing a snack while spearing his next helping using his well-adapted digitations. A member of aves, the snatcher shares similar morphology. His bushy twig-like tail is comprised of modified feathers, and his spear-like fingers are simply elongations of a birds usual semi-vestigial digits. Using it's unique cover, this flightless bird waits in ambush for its prey. Then, a swift stab from a finger insures an accurate snare.



-Craig

[Danomight]

There is such a vast improvement in your work from the first couple pages of this thread to your current stuff.

I really like the style you used for the younger portrait and the stick bird, reminds me of a various book illustrations I have seen.

I'd like to see how the oil paint/pastel looks finished, it was coming along nicely.

Really nice work.

[Craig Houghton]

Dan - Many thanks! It can get tough to feel that there's a progression going on, so I'm particuarly encouraged by your comments. Glad you like em. Also, I'll be getting back to the oil/oil pastel very soon.

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I've been doing a lot of anatomy studies, but they're the sketchy sort meant only to help me study the text. Instead, here's some bouguereau studies from this evening.

I've a new scanner, and so far it's handling my pencil work like crap. So, until I can get the settings right, bear in mind that these have a lot of the lighter pencil work dropped from the scan.



did a cleaner version of one of em by working right on top of the first



and here's some Painter bird doodle



Thanks for looking!

Craig

[Zebz]

Whoa, Craig! That painted up bird drawing is major kick ass! Wow. Can't believe I missed that! The girl studies and and simple little bird line drawing are fantastic as well. Man, everytime I look in here I'm amazed at your growth. You're workin' hard and it's very evident, man. Just keep it up. That's all I can say. Keep studyin' and drawin'. You're great.

[sve]

Very charming work, Greg. Changed my mood. I came with totally different one on your thread.
Sveta Dudetta

[van]

Wow, Craig. Great journies. I absolutely love taking a peek into your world.

[Craig Houghton]

ZebzFree - Glad you like the bird. Thx for the comments and encouragement. It means a lot.

sve - It's a huge compliment to hear that I had an effect like that. Many thanks. You sure it wasn't a coincidence?

van - Thx Van. Glad to have you along.

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I finally! took the time these past two days to redesign my web site. I still need to add some more galleries (an 'older work' and 'studies' sub gallery off of each of the three main galleries), but it's up.

Check it out Here!!

Thanks for looking!
Craig

[sve]

Let's cut my brains and see . It's okay if I'll never be the same person afterwards .
I like your little birdie from September 14th too but it will not see the next spring . Too bony.
Sveta Dudetta

[Craig Houghton]

sve - next time it's my turn with the scalpel.

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5x10


-Craig

[sve]

Wow, Greg, What a beautiful piece, it's better than life. You are touching my nerves with this delicate brush of yours. Love everything in this painting, the background, the color of skin, texture, a sex-appeal, an evening mood.
I'm taking her with me to my collection of art treasures.
Sveta Dudetta

[Craig Houghton]

I rarely post without posting some kind of art in the response as well, but Sve, I wanted to say that you leave the best damned compliments. I have to be careful or it'll go to my head.

Thx man.

-Craig

[sve]

You deserved it, Craig, as deserved all the other artists I wrote to. I don't lie
Sveta Dudetta

[Craig Houghton]

sve - gracias

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sometimes you just feel like rendering the hell out of something

5x7 charcoal pencil on hot press


-Craig

[sve]

Hey, you are on a roll. Funny as hell and brilliant form and rendering. I smiling at it. Where did you get this idea? Feathers and ring are made so-o-o elegant.
I'm taking it with me.
Sveta Dudetta

[BlueMech]

Wow. I could barely even render the purgatory out of anything. :/

[Johann de Venecia]

Hey Craig!

Wow, your SB is blooming! Your progress (especially in painted ones) is in huge leaps and bounds. Very inspiring stuff.

I don't know what the hell this is: http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4...dfalcon3ma.jpg... But damn I like the way you rendered it.

Hope to see more from you.

[seth1]

Craig, your newest bird drawing is very cool! I was woundering what set of oil pastels do you have? My i have seem to be very viberent. Not very human fleshy like... Keep up the good work..

[Slash]

You continue to pump out quality works. I enjoy looking through every update. Only one thing bothers me a little - it looks like on some of your skin tones you're using black for shadowing, and that makes the skin look a little dirty.

[johnny78]

You´ve some really beautiful stuff in here. Very self confident with your materials.
You make me want to try out oil pastels as well... and that means something!

[Craig Houghton]

sve - Thanks sve. There's not a lot of clothing to choose from for birds. The hood struck me as a nice opportunity to play with some different textures.

BlueMech - speaking of purgatory - where the hell have my updates been?

lukavi - Thanks man! I'm glad to see you stopping by!

seth1 - Thanks! I didn't buy any sets for the oil pastels. I wasn't sure if i'd like em, so instead I bought a good-sized pile of open stock sennelier colors. There's some caran d'ache in there too. All the good flesh comes from the sennelier though.

Slash - Thanks slash. Yeah, you're right about the skin tones. I'm going to push myself through some studies using some altogether different skin tones.

johnny - Many thanks! Good luck with the ops -- they're worth the try. (at least)

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I haven't updated in a bit, but I'm going to pretend that never happened.

So, here's some newer stuff:

I did these two watercolors specifically to be merged together and messed with in order to do the C.H.O.W. entry.





and here's the final



and here's a random noref sketch dump of questionable quality











and here's a pelican on stained paper



Thanks for looking!

-Craig

[sve]

Hello, Craig.
I'll pretend that nothing happened too, although it feels like you made it around a globe on a bike, competing and with no time for updates. Even your new work suggest that you stopped and did some sketches outside US .

What a beautiful and unusual face this girl has. Features are so lovely and fine, very fragile. Wondering how she lives in this world, there is nothing material in her, she is not from our century at all. Lovely and decadent, fragile beauty.

Even her cigarette holder suggests for me 20 years of last century, or the end of 19th century, so called a Silver Century in Russia ( I'm from Russia originally), blooming period for unusual poets, artists and designers. Very exotic yet tragically ended period, after that a revolution destroyed already confused and sick society. Well that's my association with your beautiful painting. I love the artists from that time, they had very finely developed sense of beauty.

I would call this painting something like "Tender orchid" or " Not willing to kill" . Can I take it?

Really like those old teared umbrella on a beach, dead flower, old Pierro and textured pelican (took it, OK?).

So thank you so much. Hope you will update more often, really love your art.
Sveta Dudetta

[linzie]

hey i really like your work and was wondering how you got to where you are today? im at college at the moment doing dt and art. im hoping to go to clevland art college to do fine art then go to uni and study fine art. thanks for the inspiration

[Craig Houghton]

Sveta - I really enjoyed reading your comment. I even took another look at my own work afterwords. Thank you. I'm ready to get back in the habit of updating here reguarly. I don't know why, but whatever the reason was for the sabbatical, it's over now.

Also, I owe the greater part of my interest and appreciation of art the time period to which you refer (the Silver Century, Romantic Period, or the American Renaissance Period). So, I'm more than happy to hear that you made that association.

Linzie - Thanks so much for posting (first post too). I'm glad you found some inspiration here. How did I get where I am? I haven't made it all that far yet, but hopefully I'm heading in the right direction. Nonetheless, I've proceeded by simply strongly pursuing whatever element of art has intersted me at that time. I've had no formal classes or mentor to rely on, so I suppose there's been a certain lack of structure. I've moved back and forth between mediums and styles in an almost cyclical manner -- each time I've compounded my experiences and looked at the medium or subject in a whole new way. I've spent a lot of time reading books on technique and theory, but the rule has been to always 'do' -- it has to be on paper/canvas and never simply in the head.

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I've a good stack of drawings and such that I haven't scanned or don't plan on posting anytime soon, but nonetheless, this should be enough of an update to get things moving again.

The King -- my girlfriend did the watercolor bg -- i did the ink and the masking of the white
(when it comes to the elvis/beatles question, I'm with the brits, but this was a gift for someone)


the cinereous vulture
(i had a chance to view this guy at the bronx zoo -- i could never do him justice)


a pen drawing from a life drawing session a few weeks back


the Hooked-Nosed Warbler WIP - rough sketch



the drawing



and WIP thus far (I've a bit to go)


also, I've started a side-interest forum on avian art. I've a thing for birds it seems -- I have no idea how that happened, but it seems I like the buggers. It's just begun, so we're looking for any and all members, especially anyone who might want to become a mod. The Avian Art Forum

Thanks for looking!

-Craig