Craig Houghton July 5th, 2007
Women of all ages across mediums and styles.
Craig Houghton June 3rd, 2007
No finished drawings or paintings here, just some recent sketchbook bits and pieces thrown together.
random scraps 1
and 2
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Craig Houghton February 26th, 2007
I’m starting an oil over acrylic portrait of my girlfriend. I’ll do a step-through once it’s finished. Well, I will if it comes out half-way decent. It’s about time for a more detailed portrait.
rougher drawing on super smooth rag
then, refined contour drawing right over that using lightbox — I’m not going for a drawing here, just looking for confident lines to guide the initial block in
out of curiosity, I changed the rough to blue and contour to red to see how different they really were. They weren’t, really.
I applied three or four sanded layers of acrylic gesso to my canvas. it’s 14×18. here’s a before and after
I then transferred my drawing exactly as is (that was the point of the contour) onto the toned canvas by printing it in five sheets (in order to enlarge), rubbing black pastel on the back, and pressing that into the canvas like I was using graphite paper. The fifth paper, with just the face, was used to transfer the facial details so that I didn’t have to worry about the overlap from the 4 papers.
Then, I sealed the drawing in with a layer of matte medium. It smears the charcoal a bit, but the lines are perfectly intact, and that gave it some character. In the morning I’ll sand that back to keep things smooth and then I’ll do the acrylic underpainting. After that comes more acrylic and then the oils for a smooth finish — I hope.
Craig Houghton February 25th, 2007
a no ref slightly caricatured acrylic sketch using Bob Kato’s techniques from his gnomon painting vids.
and a bunch of sketchbook crap that I wouldn’t normally post, but it’s been a busy week
Here’s a detail of the acrylic sketch. Kato’s method involves a very loose underdrawing and then a series of easily digested setps. It’s a good time.
Thanks for looking!
Craig
Craig Houghton February 20th, 2007
Here’s Berberis thunbergii before the last of the berries fall off and spring begins. There’s one growing in my front yard. It’s considered an invasive exotic species. I have no idea how the berries manage to stay attached all winter, but they take quite a bit of wear before they lose their shine, dry up, darken, and fall.
8×24 acrylic
detail
-Craig
Craig Houghton February 17th, 2007
I spent a bit trying to decide what to do with a small box frame that’s been in my way lately. I contemplated a navel and went with it.
Belly Button Box, a 5×7 acrylic navel
It’s really meant to be viewed from across a room, where it’ll look more like this:
And, here you can see the box frame.
-Craig
Craig Houghton January 16th, 2007
I’ve been working on a carving of a bluejay all the long weekend, but that’s definitely not photo worthy. Well, yet (first real wood carving, so read that as ‘maybe never’). So, as I continue the birds across mediums marathon, here’s a Cedar Waxwing in acrylic.
Cedar Waxwing, Acrylic 9×12
Thanks for looking!
Craig
Craig Houghton January 8th, 2007
This is from over the weekend, but I hadn’t bothered to post it at the time. In my xmas stocking (yes, I realize I’m 30), I found a teeny tiny canvas and a little egg-shaped rock. So, I did a teeny tiny acrylic painting of the teeny tiny rock and placed it on a terrible tiny easel.
-Craig
Craig Houghton is a self-taught artist available for fine-art commissions and illustration work. Contact via email using leversandpulleys at yahoo.com.
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