orange « Antemortem Arts | Fine Art & Custom Paintings

Posts Tagged ‘orange’

Spiral Bookmark 1

Saturday, February 18th, 2012

Spiral Bookmark 1
by Amy Crook

And so we wave a cheerful goodbye to Bookmark Week with this last installment.

I was experimenting with these pigment-dense watercolor sticks I picked up, using the teal and orange pair to create a very bright contrast indeed. I wasn’t quite happy with it as is, though, so I added in the silver spirals on top with this awesome silver brush pen I got in Japantown, which gives a nice bit of shine to the piece.

Spiral Bookmark 1, 1.5″x7″ watercolor and brush pen on paper, nfs, sold.

Spiral Bookmark 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Above you can see the various textures from the drawn lines to the washes created by running a wet brush over the watercolor stick, to the shining silver paint floating atop it all. Below, the bookmark sits happily with a book, just waiting to fulfill its intended purpose.

Spiral Bookmark 1, with book, by Amy Crook

Tags: bookmark, brush pen, nfs, orange, silver, sold, teal, watercolor, watercolor stick
Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art | No Comments »

Tentacle Bookmark 1

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

Tentacle Bookmark 1
by Amy Crook, $13.13

I couldn’t neglect Tentacle Tuesday for Valentine’s Day, now could I? After all, it is a nice lovely red.

After I finished this one, I texted a photo to a friend who immediately replied, “Are you giving me the tentacle?”

I drew this in pen and ink on a thick, textured watercolor paper that’s a nice warm white base for the tentacle and its background.

Tentacle Bookmark 1, 1″x7.625″ pen and ink on paper, $13.13 with free shipping.

Tentacle Bookmark 1, with book, by Amy Crook

Above you can see this bookmark’s quite a bit longer than yesterday’s, but will still nestle nicely in a hardcover book. May I suggest a volume of Lovecraft?

Tentacle Bookmark, detail, by Amy Crook

The usual obligatory tentacle shot, which is tamer than it sounds. Don’t forget to visit all the bookmarks from this week.

Tags: bookmark, for sale, orange, pen and ink, red, tentacles
Posted in Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles | No Comments »

Copper Beeches

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Copper Beeches by Amy Crook, $323

This is one of those pieces that’s frustratingly difficult to color match or photograph in any reasonably representative way. The background is warm golds and orange-browns with layers of spirals in more browns and metallic copper. The salt pools are all centered over shiny copper spirals, though the salt itself didn’t pick up much color at all from either the background or the copper. There’s even a few golden leaves floating subtly through everything else, and that and the original Sherlock Holmes story are where the piece gets its name.

Copper Beeches, 8″x8″ salt and watercolor on paper, $323 framed with free shipping.

Copper Beeches, detail, by Amy Crook

Tags: brown, copper, for sale, gold, orange, salt, watercolor
Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Shop - Abstract and Just Plain Weird | No Comments »

Dichrome

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Dichrome by Amy Crook

Despite the rather random way this image came about (and really, do my abstract pieces come about any other way?), I’m really in love with the stuttering flow of the paint and the subtle transition from warm orange to cool, soft blue. The salt pools came later, using a black ink that separates in water into brown and blue, which mixed beautifully with the pink Himalayan salt.

The swoop of paint reminds me of clouds at sunset, breaking up as they rise up into the sky, but then I’m not sure what the salt pools would become, though they were absolutely necessary for the visual balance of the piece.

Dichrome, 6″x6″ watercolor, ink and salt on paper, nfs (sold).

There’s a lot of variation in the salt pools this time around, and here you can really see the colors of them and how they echo the paint colors.

Dichrome, detail 1, by Amy Crook

And here’s another view of the same section that allows you to really appreciate the geometric crystals in the big pool, and the chunk of pink salt with its rough surfaces that’s nearby. I always find the close-up photos of the salt crystal formations fascinating.

Dichrome, detail 2, by Amy Crook

Tags: blue, nfs, orange, salt, sold, watercolor
Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art | 2 Comments »

Red Orange Yellow

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

Red Orange Yellow by Amy Crook, $199

Another experiment with salt and watercolor, this time the salt picked up just a touch of the colour, turning the salt crystals a sort of transparent pale red that manages not to be very pink at all. I stuck to the warm, sunny end of the spectrum, with swooping zen circles of gold, complementary swishes of orange and just little hints of red creeping back in and blending into the orange at the edges.

I’ll frame it in an 8″x10″ frame with a mat, but right now I’m busy with a big website launch for a client (I can’t wait to show you the header painting!), so anything that needs matting is on the back burner — unless it sells, of course!

Red Orange Yellow, 4″x8″ watercolor and salt on paper, $199 framed, with free shipping.

Cold winter sunlight casts the paper in blue, but the warmth of the paint can’t be dampened in this detail photo.You can really see how the salt is tinged with red from this angle, too.

Red Orange Yellow, detail, by Amy Crook

If you think you’d like to brighten up your home or office with this piece but you’ve got questions, or if you’d just like to chat but don’t want to comment, feel free to drop me a line!

Tags: for sale, orange, red, salt, watercolor, yellow
Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Shop - Abstract and Just Plain Weird | No Comments »

Autumn Breeze

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Autumn Breeze by Amy Crook, $333

I wanted to revisit the autumnal color palette of Autumn Winds, so I created this piece with different materials. The paper is a thick, soft cream-coloured printing paper, and the little spirals use quinacridone burnt orange paint instead of the less lightfast pen ink, though the pigment doesn’t infuse as well into the salt. Instead of tea there’s all watercolor paints for the rest, breezy spirals gathered around each salt pool like strange seeds tossed on a light fall breeze.

Autumn Breeze, 8″x6″ watercolor and salt on paper, $333, framed, with free shipping.

Below you can see how the salt crystals spread a little into the textured paper without going too far outside their original pool. The actual color of the piece is somewhere in between the two images, more saturated than the scan but less so than the detail photo.

Autumn Breeze, detail, by Amy Crook

Tags: brown, for sale, gold, orange, salt, watercolor
Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Shop - Abstract and Just Plain Weird | No Comments »

Rhymes With Orange

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Rhymes With Orange by Amy Crook, $222

Another orange piece! Two in one week! It’s madness!

Or, perhaps I did them on the same day? Well, I suppose it could be so.

The salt pools on this one are colored by salt that was used previously to create texture in other watercolor pieces — I chose a range of warm colors from orange to yellow, and then put in the swirls and spirals to match.

Rhymes With Orange, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.

Rhymes With Orange, detail 1, by Amy Crook

Reusing “dirty” salt is always a risk, because sometimes the paint doesn’t distribute very well in the salt, as on the left, and sometimes it gets so diluted you can’t see it at all, as on the right. But either way, the salt always seems to retain its sparkle.