Blog « Antemortem Arts | Art & Writing by Amy Crook

August 2022 Patreon sketches

Posted on April 6th, 2023

So many requests that month! I had a lot of fun with them, despite a head cold that took out our whole household (but wasn’t covid, whew).

August 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

August 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

  • Max Silliness for Rey & Amber (sold)… who remembers Max Headroom?
  • Andria asked for “something steampunky” and gets zen circle gears
  • Nick asked for Constantine and gets a little sneaky King Shark bonus
August 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

August 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

  • Eric asked for Blast! and gets red-pink fireworks (sold)
  • Rebecca S asked for watermelon and gets abstract watermelony goodness
  • Look, it’s just been a ‘shaking your fist at the sky’ kind of year, okay?
  • Some experimental birbs
  • Amy B only sort of asked for Smushmallow Mal but that’s what she got (sold)
  • Jefferson asked for Dude of the Endless, and I decided his domain was coincidence: the Dude really brings things together (sold)

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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July 2022 Patreon sketches

Posted on April 4th, 2023

Plus a bunch of bonus corvids! I wanted to do some gestural corvids, hilariously unrelated to the poll earlier, just to keep up my practice of loose, interesting birbs.

July 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

July 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

Only 2 people actually asked for things in July, so we have:

  • Jefferson, who asked for Iron Chef Klingon and gets deconstructed disgustingness (sold)
  • a purple crow giving some side-eye (sold)
  • a rainbow crow giving some serious side-eye (sold)
  • some crows flying through a gorgeous sunrise, inspired by Shayla Maddox’s current photo project (pretty sure this one’s been claimed too)
  • A bi pride sea turtle for Andria, the only piece to use an actual pen (for the purple bits) outside of the signature, heh (sold)
  • and a fluffed-up blue corvid having a bloody red treat (sold)

I actually used references for everything but the food, though I googled Klingon names to give our chef his moniker. I also mentally wrote some weird fanfic in my head about this dish while doodling, so, uh. Enjoy the grossness?

Categories: Completed Commissions, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Things I'm a Fan Of
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June 2022 Patreon sketches

Posted on March 30th, 2023

Not a ton of requests from June, so there’s a wee trio of cards. These are all the size of a standard playing card, known as ATC or ACEO for Artist Trading Card (when traded) or Artist Card, Edition Original (when sold). The more you know.

June 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

June 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

  • Jefferson asked for “Cherry Festival”
  • Eric asked for “gloom”
  • R&A asked for “Do not sell the baby online!”

These were all claimed before they were even made, whee!

Categories: Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces
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May 2022 Patreon sketches

Posted on March 28th, 2023

More sketches! A lot of these get sent to patrons for my quarterly packets, so they vanish into the mist never to be seen again. I’m pretty sure these have all been sent off to new adventures!

May 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

May 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

The right column is all filler cats, because I felt like continuing with some no-line, super sketchy cats after I finished the patron sketches. We have Raccoon, Pod, and Mal from top to bottom.

The left column, top down, is for patrons! Who all asked for machines, so I decided to break out the markers and have some sketchy no-line fun.

  • Rebecca S asked for trains and got this VROoooM train
  • Eric wanted Giant Robots and got the most ridiculous kitty kaiju training bot. He knows why. (sold)
  • Jefferson prompted “vacuum cleaner” and got a tumblr meme he won’t even know (sorry), Stabby the Roomba. (sold)

Categories: Completed Commissions, Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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April 2022 Patreon sketches

Posted on March 23rd, 2023

Guess who’s been doing sketches on Patreon for months and not posting them to the blog? It’s me! I’ll be getting the last many months of them out on the blog over the next few weeks, so please enjoy the ridiculousness.

April 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

April 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

  • This one wasn’t a prompt, I just wanted to draw trees and birbs on this orange sunset
  • Jeff asked for ‘distracted’
  • Another non-prompt experiment with salt and watercolor on yupo that got some marker topography
  • And ‘rose candy’ for Eric

These have all found a new home, but some of the later ones are still available for the discerning collector. You can also make an account and follow me on Patreon for free, where these are always posted publicly, or Instagram or Twitter, where I post some things as the mood strikes me.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Pretty Words, Whimsical and Strange
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Random Recipe: Minted Lemonade

Posted on August 18th, 2022

A recipe made of 4 ingredients, and to your own taste!

You will need:

  • a pitcher
  • boiling water
  • fresh mint
  • fresh lemons
  • sugar

Make mint tea! Pour boiling water over washed fresh mint and steep for 5-7 minutes. Longer goes stronger, but much over 7 minutes and you’re adding flavors you probably don’t want.

Filter out the mint and then pour the tea into your pitcher.

Add the sugar to taste, keeping in mind that you’ll be adding a lot of lemon juice later. You want very sweet, minty tea. Cool it down.

Add lemon juice to taste and drink up!

For reference, I added 1/4 cup of sugar to 4 cups of tea, and the juice of 3 lemons. It could maybe have used a fourth for real tartness. I used a bundle of mint from our farmshare, and everything else was just guesswork and experimentation.

It’s pretty tasty, though.

 

PS – Please enjoy my new hobby, 8-bit pixel art!

Categories: Whimsical and Strange, Words Words Words
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Phosphorescence

Posted on June 14th, 2022

Phosphorescence, 12″x24″ mixed media on paper

In the same vein as Time is Escaping, this larger-scale painting uses shimmering, textured paint to create a feeling of water and movement.

The spiral structure suggests a deep whirlpool or concentric waves, with something brightly phosphorescent bursting out, escaping with its darker-hued cousins. Despite the feeling of depth, the paint in the center is thickly layered in textural swashes, though some peeks of the first layer, an iridescent fluorite green wash, still show through.

The palette of black, purple, blue, and green is reminiscent of a peacock feather, as is the sheen of sparkle that covers the entire painting.

Phosphorescence, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see sunlight picking up the flecks of tourmaline in the black, and the varying shades of purple floating atop the central vortex. Below, the same purples drift down into the shimmering metallic greens at the bottom of the painting.

Phosphorescence, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
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