Posts Tagged ‘japanese watercolor’
City Lights
Friday, April 8th, 2016
City Lights, 8″x4″ Japanese watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper
Stormclouds shroud the city in darkness, distance and fog obscuring the buildings farther away. On the close horizon, cheerful yellow blobs of light beckon the viewer to their warm interiors.
Three colors of lovely Japanese Gansai watercolors make up this simple palette, a blue-black, a violet-black, and of course the welcoming yellow which also glows over the skyline in a display of light pollution.
The buildings this time are mostly simple, traditional skyscrapers in different configurations, with a few interesting variations lurking among the lights.
City Lights, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the little glowing blobs of light defining one skyscraper from another. Below, the painting is in a temporary frame, waiting to be packaged up and sent to its forever home.
City Lights, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: city, horizons, japanese watercolor, nfs, sold, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 49
Thursday, April 7th, 2016
Tentacle Deeps 49, 8″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper
The Tentacle Deeps rise again!
Someone asked me on Periscope what my favorite thing is to paint, and I immediately answered, “Tentacles,” and was reminded that it’s been ages since I added to this series.
The photos don’t really do it justice, the bright green on top is cheerful and the rich teal blends into it beautifully. The tentacles are in a deep blue-black mix that adds depth, darker layering over lighter as we got closer to the viewer.
Tentacle Deeps 49, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a detail of the tentacles, growing bluer and fainter as they fade into the background. Below, the painting sits in a frame, perfect to be part of a grouping of art, or just to fill that little patch of bare wall. With tentacles.
Tentacle Deeps 49, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, japanese watercolor, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Rainy City
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016
Rainy City, 10″x8″ Japanese watercolor and iridescent watercolor on Arches cover black paper
This painting has been months in the making, from the first fall of rain to the test city bookmark to the painstaking buildings themselves. A dark, nighttime echo of the Jade City, more than one person has described the cloud-shapes above as looming figures.
Intricately detailed buildings of jade seem almost translucent beneath the color-shifting sky. The rainy grey becomes blue and violet at certain angles, adding to the mysterious, otherworldly feel.
Rainy City, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the wash of violet in the shining rain, above the gorgeous jade green city. Below, it’s been trapped in a frame like a view out an alien window, just waiting to grace your walls.
Rainy City, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: city, duochrome, iridescent, japanese watercolor, nfs, sold, watercolor
Jade City
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015
Jade City, watercolor by Amy Crook
Every time I paint a new City, I think, this one is my favorite. It’s the inevitable consequence of hours spent filling in the tiny, monochrome details and fleshing out my imaginary worlds.
This gorgeous jade city is besieged by a magnificent purple rainstorm, the violet clouds hanging above in dark spirals while the rain streaks down the page. The patterns of the rain helped determine the shape of the city it fell upon; gaps in the runnels became the buildings in this layered, mysterious skyline.
Jade City, 8″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Jade City, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the tops of a few of the buildings besieged by the beautifully textured rainfall. Below, the city waits in its frame like a window onto another, stranger world.
Jade City, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: city, japanese watercolor, nfs, primatek, sold, watercolor
Painted Ladies
Thursday, August 6th, 2015
Painted Ladies by Amy Crook
This is the summer of paintings that take months to complete! I started this last month with the off-kilter row houses all leaning together against a midnight sky. Then it sat around for weeks while I contemplated this sky or that sky, and finally I found clouds that match with the same whimsical, half-surreal feel as the townhouses below.
Perhaps this is where the London Addams clan lives, the houses joined up by tunnels and secret passages until it’s really one big, beautiful wall of weird. Instead of a swamp they have walled-up cellars that suspiciously moan. Instead of an unmarked, abandoned well, there’s a root cellar that doesn’t seem to stop going back and down into the deep earth.
Which of these painted ladies would you like to live in?
Painted Ladies, 10″x8″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Painted Ladies, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a the detail of the moon and a few of the lovely, strange roofs it’s shining down upon. Below, the painted ladies are in a frame, like a window to another, odder reality.
Painted Ladies, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: city, japanese watercolor, moon, nfs, painted ladies, periwinkle, row houses, sold, stars, watercolor
Fairytale Sky 10
Friday, July 3rd, 2015
Fairytale Sky 10 by Amy Crook
I haven’t added to this series in a while, but sometimes you just want to paint swirly clouds and a big, bright moon.
I was watching Mulan the other day, and I was inspired by the beautiful way the artists rendered smoke in that movie. I’m still wembling about what to do with the sky in another work in progress, so this little painting let me explore both ideas.
I think the result is lovely, don’t you?
Fairytale Sky 10, 6″x4″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Fairytale Sky 10, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the moon up close, its softly glowing face full of beautiful texture from the paper. Below, the piece has been put in a tiny frame, perfect to secret in a bookshelf, display on a desk, or add to an array of other art.
Fairytale Sky 10, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, fairytale sky, for sale, japanese watercolor, moon, watercolor
Unlock Me
Tuesday, May 5th, 2015
Unlock Me by Amy Crook
I’ve been working hard on a new novel, Unboxed, which should be out sometime this summer. There’s a theme of keys and locks in it, and this lovely painting is part of the cover art.
Lovely hand-painted filigree in a warm rosy gold frames a mysterious keyhole, just waiting for the right key to come unlock it. There’s 3 painted gemstones held in the spirals and curls of the metal. The background is a dark brown woodgrain, the opening of this mysterious box kept safe and sound by the lock that covers it.
This painting gives a fairytale sense of mystery, inviting speculation and storytelling of your own to explain the reason for the lock, who has the key, and what hides inside.
Unlock Me, 8″x10″ Japanese and metallic watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Unlock Me, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the painting washed with sunlight, catching on the gold and copper paint that make up the filigree design. Below, the painting sits in a frame, a fairytale just waiting to be told.
Unlock Me, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black paper, i made this, japanese watercolor, metallic, nfs, sold, unboxed
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