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Tentacle Deeps 35

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Tentacle Deeps 35, watercolor by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 35, watercolor by Amy Crook, $333

Someone asked me at the gallery on Saturday why I like tentacles, and I didn’t have a really good answer. I like painting them a lot, in part because it’s an interesting combination of spontaneous and planned art, in that the tentacles can go all over the place but keep a certain smooth taper to them while they do, and I always try to get a certain distribution of shapes and sizes in so that the piece itself is aesthetically pleasing as well as creepy.

This particular paper isn’t really meant to be watercolor paper, and it absorbed the paint without letting it float on top at all, giving a stripey quality to the blue gradation in the background. The paper itself has a lot of little dotted inclusions that add texture to the piece, and the tentacles themselves are painted in Japanese sumi-e ink rather than watercolor to take better advantage of the paper’s absorbency.

Tentacle Deeps 35, 8″x10″ ink and watercolor on paper, $333 framed, with free shipping.

Tentacle Deeps 35, detail, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 35, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the shine off the very base of the tentacles where the black sumi-e ink is the thickest. Below, the piece waits in its frame, taking up nearly my whole tiny writing desk as it poses with my iPhone for scale.

Tentacle Deeps 35, framed art by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 35, framed art by Amy Crook

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Posted in Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Shop - Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Tentacles | No Comments »

Doctor Who Bookmark 1

Saturday, May 12th, 2012

Doctor Who Bookmark 1 by Amy Crook

Doctor Who
Bookmark 1
by Amy Crook

I’ve optimistically numbered this 1, assuming I’ll get the urge to do more Doctor Who bookmarks in the future. The Eleventh Doctor is contemplating his lot with his TARDIS parked a bit precariously on a hill, and not liking his options at the moment. But don’t worry, he’ll figure some way out.

He’s the Doctor. It’s what he does.

Doctor Who Bookmark 1, 1.5″x7″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).

Doctor Who Bookmark 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Doctor Who Bookmark 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, a close-up of our pouting Doctor. Below, he’s hanging out with my Free Comic Book Day book from last Saturday’s outing, an excellent reminder that I love sequential art and ought to do more of it.

Doctor Who Bookmark 1, with book, by Amy Crook

Doctor Who Bookmark 1, with book, by Amy Crook

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Posted in Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of | No Comments »

Salt Bookmark 4

Friday, May 11th, 2012

Salt Bookmark 4 by Amy Crook

Salt Bookmark 4
by Amy Crook

The second smallest bookmark for your Friday viewing, this one’s a little shorter but wide enough to win the by a nose on total surface area. (What? You knew I was a nerd.)

This one echoes the flaked-off salt textures in Blue Planet 4, but in miniature, with the smallest pools keeping all of their paint and only the larger four pulling away to show the iridescent green beneath. I gave this one a meticulous background of blue lines radiating outward without ever quite intersecting thanks to the stopping points I snuck in at the start.

Salt Bookmark 4, 1″x5″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).

Salt Bookmark 4, detail, by Amy Crook

Salt Bookmark 4, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the textures of salt and paint, ink and paper, and how they all interact on a tiny level (given that the bookmark is barely and inch wide). Below, it’s snuggled up with a book for size perspective, though I’m not sure I’d want to risk leaving blue powder in my books by actually using this one for reading.

Salt Bookmark 4, with book, by Amy Crook

Salt Bookmark 4, with book, by Amy Crook

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Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books | No Comments »

Jellyfish Bookmark

Thursday, May 10th, 2012

Jellyfish Bookmark 2 by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Bookmark 2
by Amy Crook

More tentacles for Thursday! This bookmark is extra thick, drawn on black mat board rather than the paper I usually use. I drew a rainbow of jellyfish on here, and saved the gold for mysterious floating motes of something in the black depths.

This is the smallest of this week’s offerings, though the paper’s quite thick, making it a very solid little piece of art.

Jellyfish Bookmark 2, 0.75″x6″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).

Jellyfish Bookmark 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Bookmark 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Above you can see the sparkle of the glittery pen I used for this set of jellyfish. Below, they’re hanging out with a book to show you how small and unassuming this bookmark is. Just the thing for a small and unassuming book full of secret awesome.

Jellyfish Bookmark 2, with book, by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Bookmark 2, with book, by Amy Crook

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Posted in Daily Art, Sea Creatures, Series and Books, Tentacles | No Comments »

Tentacle Bookmark 2

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

Tentacle Bookmark 2 by Amy Crook

Tentacle Bookmark 2
by Amy Crook, $13.13

Tentacle Tuesday meets Bookmark Week once again! Zoisite green and a satiny black combine with thick textured paper to make a very nice bookmark. This one should stand up to all sorts of abuse, though the soft hand-torn edges might get even softer as time goes on.

Tentacle Bookmark 2, 2.25″x8″ mixed media on paper, $13.13 with free shipping. Due to the size of this one, international might be a dollar or two extra for your shipping, just email me.

Tentacle Bookmark 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Bookmark 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the light shining off the thick black paint at the base of the tentacles. Below, a standard-sized hardback book shows you just how big the tentacles are. Definitely not tentacles for the faint of heart!

Tentacle Bookmark 2, with book, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Bookmark 2, with book, by Amy Crook, $13.13

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Posted in Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles | No Comments »

Salt Bookmark 3

Monday, May 7th, 2012

Salt Bookmark 3 by Amy Crook

Salt Bookmark 3 by Amy Crook

As you’ve no doubt correctly surmised, it’s Bookmark Week again! I’ve sold almost all of the bookmarks from last time, and since May is Get Caught Reading month, I figured that the time was right for another week of tiny, inexpensive originals to tempt you.

This one and Friday’s were done sort of simultaneously, but since I started this one first it got to be number 3 in the series. I’m using the same mix of paint and salt water as I did for last week’s Blue Planets, but this time in dots and spirals instead. Then I crosshatched the background in a complementary green, which brought out the blue and gave the whole thing a nice visual texture.

Salt Bookmark 3, 2″x6″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).

Salt Bookmark 3, detail, by Amy Crook

Salt Bookmark 3, detail, by Amy Crook

Above you can see the sparkle of salt, the shimmer of iridescent paint and the shine of glitter gel pen, offset by velvety black paper and opaque blue paint. Below, the bookmark rests on a book for scale, though I’m not honestly sure this one would do that well as a bookmark — I’ve found the blue paint doesn’t bind to the paper as well as one might hope when mixed with the salt. Chemistry at work, I suppose.

Salt Bookmark 3, with book, by Amy Crook

Salt Bookmark 3, with book, by Amy Crook

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Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books | No Comments »

Stuck in the Tubes

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

Stuck in the Tubes, a Sherlock comic by Amy Crook

Stuck in the Tubes, a Sherlock comic by Amy Crook, $42

After a week of planets, I couldn’t resist doing another vaguely circular piece of art for my Saturday Morning Cartoon. This absurd little comic is just here to make you smile today, and possibly shake your head at what a silly person I am.

Go on, you know you want to. It’s okay.

Stuck in the Tubes, 7″x5″ pen and ink on paper, $42 with free shipping.

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Posted in Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange | No Comments »

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