Craig L Haupt's portfolio

Under Construction for Jan. 2025, New project: Watercolors to Acrylics

Watercolor to Acrylics to Oil paintings

Oil painting wasn’t a consideration during my early years of artwork. I was comfortable working with watercolor/pen & ink and occasionally added colored pencil.

For watercolor I did wet on dry and dabbed my colors building layers, achieving gradation techniques to attain form. Later, larger works, using this dab/layering practice became extremely time consuming. These first five images (1-5) are examples of work that consumed many hours to complete. Not shown in any order, they were all later works that combined to strengthen my need to consider using acrylic or oil paints as a medium.

Since I had fooled around with some acrylic’s way in the past, I returned to them to see if they could be a solution for these larger works. For the gradation effect, I was seeking to mimic my watercolor layering technique. The acrylics worked to a degree.

These second five images (6-10) are my first and only acrylic artworks during this transition. ‘King Me’ was the last acrylic painting I created and became the one that propelled me to consider oils. More on that in the next section.

Space Burger

12 x 12 inches

Watercolor on Bristol 400 series/smooth in private collection

One of the first within that grouping of larger watercolors that started my pondering the size of the works and time involved with the dabbing/layering of colors over large areas. After this one, all larger watercolor works were done on Arches Hot Press watercolor paper.
Strolling Lawn Vases

11 x 14 inches, Watercolor/pen & ink

on Arches Hot Press 100% cotton watercolor paper

In private collection

It was the lawn and sky areas that took the greatest amount of time. These areas have at least seven layers of dabbed watercolor to create the form. And with this one, another nudge towards working with another medium.
Lawn Vases by the Stream

12 x 9 inches

Watercolor/pen & ink on Arches Hot Press 100% cotton watercolor paper

It was the lawn and stream areas that took the greatest amount of time. As with most of these later watercolors, these areas have at least seven plus layers of dabbed watercolor to create the form.
Reflection

11 x 14 inches

Watercolor/pen & ink, on Arches Hot Press 100% cotton watercolor paper

As a group, these five represented a continuing thought process that I needed to consider acrylics or oil painting as an alternative to working with larger size images in watercolor. I consider this watercolor image as the one that pushed me over the proverbial fence to purchase a canvas and work with another media.
Tulips

11 x 14

Watercolor, pen & ink on Arches Hot Press 100% cotton watercolor paper, in private collection

A reversal. Attempting to make the switch, I tried doing this design in acrylic first but couldn't get the gradation I wanted in the blue tube flower holders and decided to retreat and redo it in watercolor/pen & ink. I would make another attempt to work with acrylics with the next subject/idea.
The Butterfly

8 x 10 inches

Acrylic on canvas, in private collection

Even though I had worked somewhat with acrylics some 50 years prior, for this jump from watercolors to oils, this painting, completed in 2009, is considered my first acrylic painting for this transition period. The design in the wings was of a looser brush stoke than any of the next acrylics.
Silhouette Conversations

11 x 14 inches

Acrylic on canvas, unframed and set aside.

After the ‘Butterfly’ painting I turned my sights to the main technique I wanted to work with, gradation. Even though the gradation of the green spheres was successful, it was the use of 12 small plastic cups containing a gradual mix of the chosen green from light to dark to create the layers for gradation.

My complaint: Too much work to keep the cups covered or adding water so the paints didn’t dry out.
The Juggler

14 x 11 inches

Oil on Board, set aside and never framed, never shown.

What I couldn’t do with the central figure was fix or redo a couple of areas I disliked using acrylics. Even though I was unfamiliar with oils, thoughts of learning something about them began to surface.
The Letter

14 x 11 inches

Oil on board, in private collection

This one worked as an acrylic because I was able to use black marker for the outline and needed minimal gradation for the figure.

All other items, background, floor, letter didn’t need the gradation to create form or deep perspective.
King Me

12 x 12 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection

This painting is considered the one that pushed me to make the leap to oil. I had a rough time working the gradation of the two spheres. I was satisfied with the result but the time and effort with the gradation was too much work.

I needed to seek an instructor that could introduce me to working with oils.

Under Construction: My first oil paintings

My first oil paintings. Updated text for this oil painting project is currently being written. 9-23-24

Father and Son

oil on board

6 x 6 inches

This is my first oil painting during my transition from watercolor to oil painting
2 Broken Penny Farthing.jpg

8 x 8 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection

Considered my second oil painting I with a more abstract design.

This painting was eventually used in 'The Journey to Ukazoo' on-line posting project and part of my self-published ArtStory Book, 'The Journey to Ukzaoo'.

Diary entry with image: Slide/week 32 of 37. See Project Three, 'The Ukazoo exhibit.
3 Red Lips II.jpg

14 x 11 inches

Oil on board, in private collection
4 At the Beach.jpg

14 x 11 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection

Included in 'The Journey to Ukazoo' journal stories
5 The Video Game.jpg

11 x 14 inches

Oil on board, in private collection

Included in the 'Ukazoo' journal stories
6 Blueberry Earrings.jpg

14 x 11 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection

Included in the 'Ukazoo' journal stories
7 Blue Sphere, Green Man.jpg

11 x 14 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection

Included in the 'Ukazoo' journal stories
8 Pipe & Peel.jpg

20 x 20 inches

Oil on Board

Included in the Ukazoo journal stories
9 Marble Hitting the Forest Floor.jpg

16 x 20 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection

Included in 'The Journey to Ukazoo' journal stories project
10 But the Map Says.....jpg

16 x 16 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection

Included in 'The Journey to Ukazoo' journal stories project

Under Construction, Oil paintings for 'The Journey to Ukazoo' Solo Art Exhibit

Oil paintings for ‘The Journey to Ukazoo’ Solo Art Exhibit

With the work and accumulated skill I applied to the oil painting ‘But the Map Says…..’ (image number 10 in the previous project) I opted to work on a touch bigger series of 20 x 16-inch paintings. All would still be painted on MDF (medium density fiberboard) because of the materials stability as well as my access to the sheet goods and table-saw to cut the sizes I wanted.

It wasn’t until I reached the sixth painting of what would become a series of nine paintings, that I found an idea for a next painting that justified working larger still (22 x 22 inch). While working on this sixth painting, ‘Mating Calls’ I began to ponder a possible solo exhibit. With the suggestion, from a fellow artist, of a local bookstore that might suit my needs of curating the exhibit myself outside of a gallery setting, I signed up for a slot at Ukazoo Bookstore in Towson, Maryland. With a set date for the exhibit, I continued work to complete the balance of the nine paintings as the featured art for the show.

These are those nine paintings

1 Ice Scream.jpg

20 x 16 inches

Oil on Board
2 Eye to Eye.jpg

20 x 16 inches

Oil on Board
3 Still Life Vase & Apples.jpg

20 x 16 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection
4 The Couple.jpg

20 x 16 inches,

Oil on Board, in private collection
5 She Loves Me Not.jpg

20 x 16 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection
6 Mating Calls.jpg

22 x 22 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection
7 A Walk In The Park.jpg

20 x 20 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection
Pirates in a Bathtub.jpg

18 x 24 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection
Room With A View.jpg

18 x 24 inches

Oil on Board, in private collection

Under Construction: Oil paintings in 'The House That Jack Built' 2015 exhibit

After the Ukazoo exhibit I pondered a next project to maintain my social media promotional presence. I remembered a doodle and several failed attempts to get it to a finished painting. My idea was to divide the main idea into four sections, 1. front yard/gate entrance. 2. front porch & door/living room. 3. Second floor window/interior room. 4. exterior window/dinning and Kitchen interior.

My doodles and initial rough worksheets had ideas for some of the items for these for areas.

Needing more items to fill up the painting I turned to my ’friends’ and ’followers’ on Facebook for an audience participation project.

I gave some basic criteria for one section and a pencil drawing of my layout and asked for ideas of items to include in that section.

I was rewarded with a wonderful response in the comments of various items to pick from.

I worked the selected ideas into the worksheet, posted a workable section for viewing and then onward to the next section for contributed ideas and repeated the process until I had all four sections worked out and ready to start the painting.

After a years work on this project I secured a space to host another solo art exhibit on September 2015 that featured not just the ’House That Jack Built’ painting but other works of art completed over also two years after the Ukazoo show.

Tea For Two.jpg

11 x 14 inches

Oil on canvas, in private collection
Butterflies & Guitars.jpg

18 x 18 inches

Oil on board

in private collection
Camping.jpg

14 x 14 inches

Oil on board

in private collection
Red Lips V.jpg

10 x 10 inches

Oil on canvas

in private collection
Always Look Both Ways.jpg

20 x 16 inches

Oil on board

in private collection
Fractured Sun

10 x 8 inches

Oil on canvas

in private collection
Oh My!!!

10 x 8 inches

Oil on canvas
The Little House

8 x 10 inches

Oil on canvas

in private collection
Red Sphere

8 x 10 inches

Oil on Canvas

in private collection

Oil Paintings from my 2023 Solo Art Exhibit

In October 2022 I signed off on hosting a Solo Art Exhibit in November 2023 that would feature new artworks, both oils & watercolors and a separate display of the progress of a second ArtStory book.

Shown, ten of the 24 oil paintings presented for this solo exhibit.

On Second thought…..Pearls!

18 x 18 inches

Oil on canvas

in private collection
Stone Petals

18 x 18 inches

Oil on canvas
Alna’s cousin Cicely

12 x 12 inches

Oil on canvas

in private collection
Over My Shoulder.JPG

14 x 11 inches

Oil on canvas
5 Hey! Over There.jpg

14 x 11 inches

Oil on canvas
Red Ball Hinge

18 x 18 inches

Oil on canvas
Croquet match

20 x 16 inches

Oil on board

in private collection
Always Look Both Ways

20 x 16 inches

Oil on Board

in private collection
Mating Calls.jpg

22 x 22 inches

Oil on board
Cordial Conversation

18 x 18 inches

Oil on canvas

Watercolors from my 2023 Solo Art Exhibit

This year-long project of 110 art images for the November, 2023 solo art exhibit was divided into four sections, the oil paintings (shown above), the watercolors, ‘Thumbnail Sketches’ and the progress of the second ArtStory book. This section highlights 10 of the 49 watercolors displayed.

Ninth Frame

9 x 12 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink, and layered color pencil for background
Denial

7 x 9 inches

Watercolor, graphite
The Yawn

14 x 11

Watercolor, pen & ink
Greetings

11 x 14 inches

Pen & ink, watercolor
Conversation in Unison

7 x 5 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
Three Flowers

10 x 8 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
4 On the Go.jpg

5 x 7 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
3 Bowtie With Flowers_0.jpg

14 x 11 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
2 Aztec Flower_1.jpg

14 x 11 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
1 The Magi_0.jpg

7 x 5 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink

Thumbnail Sketches from my 2023 Solo Art Exhibit

I work from sketchbooks, filled with countless sketches/doodles. All my art creations are pulled from ‘doodles’ that catch my eye. Yet there are isolated sketches of significance that fail to advance to full-fledged drawings or oil paintings. Since they still hold my interest and have potential, they have found their way to a 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ inch format that I call Thumbnail Sketches. And yes, it’s my thumb! Intermingled among the larger pieces of the ‘2023 Solo Art Exhibit’ were 39 of these ‘Thumbnails’. All were displayed in 5 x 5-inch frames with mat and glass. Ten examples shown.

Yearning for an Apple

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink

in private collection
A New Day

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink

in private collection
Intersection

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
Sending a Letter

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink

in private collection
Thumb Drive

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink

in private collection
Almost Home

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
Birthday

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
A Raindrop

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink

in private collection
Teacups

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink
Triangles

2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches

Watercolor, pen & ink

The second in-progress ArtStory book, at my 2023 Solo Exhibit

I used a large 9-foot wall of my solo exhibit to display the contents, construction, and progress of my second self-published ArtStory book, 24 Album Covers. This book incorporates the 24 oil paintings of the 12 + 12, 12 x 12’s project as well as the two Intermission projects. Also displayed on the flat, were Kickstarter information books, a copy of the first ArtStory book The Journey to Ukazoo, notes concerning the transfer of design work to Adobe InDesign, sketchbooks with additional in-progress design work not shown on the display wall. At center was a portfolio book that featured digitally scanned proofs of all 48 primary paintings included in the book.

The ArtStory book display wall

This image shows the nine foot display wall that was used to give viewers an opportunity to see not just the progress of the second ArtStory book but a chance to appreciate all the work an artist takes on to create, design, layout, and be formatted in Adobe InDesign so that this years-long project can be self-published.
Rough ideas and layout of half-title page

Designs of all the title work within the progress of the ArtStory book are in various stages of completion. This design work for the Half-title page is still in it's rough idea stage. Some minor adjustments to the top worksheet labeled '2nd Worksheet' is nearing the point that I will be able to start laying out guidelines on finish paper.
Section Title page

One of the Section Title designs show at the November 2023 solo art exhibit as part of the nine foot display wall highlighting the progress of the second ArtStory book. The red string directing viewer to the 1 5/8 x 1 1/4 inch box where a reduced 10 x 8 painting will be placed during the Adobe InDesign transfer process. Next image is one of those five, 'Jukebox Lady'
Jukebox Lady

One of five 10 x 8 inch paintings that will be digitally scanned and reduced to 1 5/8 x 1 1/4 inches to fit into a rectangle box that is incorporated into five section title motifs.
Working on the Section page designs

Image showing several of the different stages of designs and tooling used on the Section page layouts
Selecting Fonts

For design work on Section page titles it's essential that both type of Font and size be determined for motif placement.
Rough text page layout on board

Rough layout of text page to finalize placement measurements of all designs, motifs, text, and images to be able to establish positions of guideline placement on InDesign page for transfer.
text page in Adobe Indesign.jpg

Building, aligning designs, and positioning several digitally scanned images/motifs/text as layers onto one of the 104 pages. Once completed, the file will be transferred to a PDF and then can be sent to the printer.
The Kickstarter books

These 3 Kickstarter books helped me with my first self-published ArtStory book and serve as a refresher tutorial for this second one.
The Journey to Ukazoo ArtStory book

Front Cover of The Journey to Ukazoo self-published ArtStory book. All design work of front & back cover, interior art and design work, along with all written stories and supporting text within this 142 page art book was created by me.

The YouTube Video project

I created a YouTube video channel in September 2020. I wanted to create another art social media platform to widen my base of support and increase the chances of a second successful fundraising campaign for my new ArtStory book 24 Album Covers. I upgraded my computer to handle NVIDIA graphics card, the DaVinci Resolve Editing program as well as any additional supporting applications such as Adobe InDesign. As of this writing I have created and uploaded 134 YouTube videos. These “Art Stuff” episodes describe my continuing art journey and my art book creation and publishing process.

Craig's Art Stuff 104: Changing Art Book Size

Art Stuff' Episode 104: Changing the 2nd ArtStory book size!

This is the current video uploaded to YouTube as of this writing.

For all the followers of my art style and journey, this episode concerns changing the size of my in-progress 2nd ArtStory book. While getting quotes from printers to compile a budget cost to determine the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign goal, the cost of printing a 10 x 10 inch compared to a 9 x 9 inch book was addressed.
Computer setup for video editing

This is a visual of the DaVinci Resolve program for film editing.

To the left, shows a triple column of film clips, top left box with green band is an audio/music track. Four down, outlined in red is the film clip selected, shown to the right (center), for editing. For a finished 3-to-10-minute video that box area can end up having upwards to 20 to 40 film clips, visuals, and music tracks to eventually complete a finished video on the timeline.

Center, me holding mats for framing is the selected film clip to review and select which portion will be dropped down into the Timeline for editing.

Image to the Right is a selected clip in the Timeline (red vertical line). When selected for editing, an ‘Inspector’ tools dialog box will appear with all the tools for, zoom, positioning, cropping, adding text, special features, etc.

Below those images is the Timeline. This is where you can do additional editing and view all the film. You can also add all your video transitions, audio transitions, and text frames (text added in ‘inspector’ tools).

Once completed, it is rendered to the selected media location resolution and then transferred to your selected computer file folder for the final step of uploading this finished/rendered video to, in my case, YouTube.
Camera to computer to editing

Visual of Camera and accessories for the Video process. Of note is the orange unit to the left. This is a Lacie 5 terabyte external hard drive that houses all the video episode film clips, visuals, music tracks, scripts & social media text, plus the downloaded rendering of the finished video from DaVinci Resolve. Each episode in their own file. When rendered, that video is the one that is uploaded to YouTube. Of note, the external hard drive is used so the main computers C and D drives are not overloaded by the large file sizes of the film clips.

The USB drives are used for transferring still images of my finished art that have been digitally scanned from an outside profession scanning service. This provides me with my JPG and TIFF files as well as the initial color correction for ordering Giclee prints. The SD cards are the ones used in the Canon film camera and Nikon still shot camera and the transferred to the computer. Different types of Mics for audio and various other connections for different needs are shown.
Filming art work

One of several film staging areas, pending the type of film/still shot visuals needed for the current video. Once the film is transferred to the computer/DaVinci Resolve editing program timeline I can 'grab stills' in the 'color grading' work page. These 'still shots' can be used for social media postings where needed.
Filming & Still cameras

One of the staging areas for filming the videos. This area is also my primary work area for art. On the smaller tripod is the Canon M50 digital film camera. Larger tripod, the Nikon D80 digital still-shot camera. Also used is the 'smartphone' for certain shots such as this one, and film/stills for YouTube one minute 'shorts' that require a vertical 1080 x 1920 format.
'Art Stuff' Episode 21, Interview an artist

Working with the filming and editing the 3-to-10-minute videos opens possibilities for finding different forms of art subjects. One path was trying my hand at interviewing another artist. This was a two-part video about learning to paint with Gouache. I have done an artist interview only this one, but I would like to return to learn more of the interview format once the second ArtStory book has been self-published.
Filming B-roll

While on trip to Conn. Tourist downtime was spent working on and filming B-roll of layout of ArtStory book display for the November 2023 solo art exhibit. B-roll are the stock film clips collected and filed in the YouTube computer folders. They can later be inserted for visuals and overlays in current or future videos. Sometimes this B-roll film, with an audio track, can become the primary subject matter for the video.
YouTube Episode 69, Stabilizing easels.

As a sample video, this is Art Stuff Episode 69. This four-minute video focuses on creating a stabilizing bar to maintain the open position on small easel legs for displaying artworks at an August 5, 2022 Pop-up art show. There are subtitles if needed.

Towards the end of the video a Sketchbook drawing, and worksheets are shown of the next 11 x 18-inch painting to be worked on for future Episodes. That finished painting is shown in the 5th listed Baker project ‘Oil Paintings from my 2023 Solo Art Exhibit.’ First painting shown ‘On Second Thought…..Pearls’
YouTube video, Episode 89, a still shot from the video

YouTube video Ep. 89 and Ep. 90 concentrated on framing different art pieces that were to be displayed in the November 2013 solo art exhibit.
'Art Stuff' Episode 90, Framing

YouTube video, Episode 90 continued with more framing of art for the November 2023 solo art exhibit.

Standalone Paintings

From 2013 with the start of my first long range social media art project, ‘The Journey to Ukazoo’, there have been six additional art projects posted to my social media sites over the past 10 years. Some required over two years to complete, some only 4 months. Two involved audience participation. Here are 10 oil paintings I created during the last decade that were not part of any of those seven projects.