Posts Tagged ‘starcycles’
Year of the Water Dragon
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Year of the Water Dragon by Amy Crook, $299
2012 is the Year of the Water Dragon in Chinese astrology, and once again I’ve done an oil painting to celebrate.
When I was talking with Georgia Stathis about ideas for the 2012 Starcycles Calendar cover, we wanted to have the two dragons passing without overly referencing the yin yang sort of shape one often sees, so instead there’s a second dragon in the background, and our charming fellow grinning from behind the wall. I went with a very painterly style this time, not wanting to let myself get drawn into fussy details, and I think the simple shapes of coral, wall, sinuous dragon and deepening water work well together as a result.
Year of the Water Dragon, 12″x9″ oil on art panel, $299 with free shipping.
The sharp angle in the ruins represents a big planetary square starting in the year 2012, and as you can see below I added in the glyphs for the planets (Pluto and Uranus) with Photoshop, along with all the pertinent details to make the painting into a proper book cover.
2012 Starcycles Calendar cover by Amy Crook
Tags: all rights reserved, commission, coral, dragon, for sale, oil painting, ruins, starcycles, water
Posted in Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Sea Creatures, Series and Books, Shop - Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Shop - Sea Creatures and Other Animals | No Comments »
Harvest Moon
Saturday, December 18th, 2010
This painting, like several others, was done for the cover of the Starcycles Calendar (in this case for 2004). We wanted something simple with rich colors, though later on we added in an image of Thoth as a shadow on the golden harvest moon.
As the paints have aged, the once deep blue has taken on a really interesting sheen that only shows in certain lights, adding a really nice violet depth to the sky that contrasts well with the matte, earthy golds.
Harvest Moon, 10″x14″ oil painting on art board, $599 with free shipping.
The art board this is painted on is awesome but not really ready to display as is. I’m happy to frame it for you for a small additional fee.
Tags: for sale, moon, oil painting, starcycles
Posted in Daily Art, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes | 2 Comments »
2011 Starcycles Calendar Cover
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
2011 Starcycles Calendar, cover by Amy Crook
Way back in 1999, Georgia Stathis first approached me to take over the design on her then-print astrology dayplanner-style calendar. We’ve skipped a few years here and there, but this year I painted several images in watercolor and then put them together with Photoshop to create this dreamy image for Year of the Rabbit. Georgia’s 2011 Calendar is available as a pdf download, or she’ll print and bind them for an additional charge. You could even print your own and have it hole-punched to fit in a Dayplanner, if you wanted.
I’m just starting to get a feel for using watercolors, so this was a great excuse for me to get them out and experiment, knowing I could fix any issues in Photoshop later. My favorite part is the subtle “rabbit in the moon” version of the moon’s shadows popular in Chinese mythology.
Tags: nfs, rabbit, starcycles, watercolor
Posted in Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books | No Comments »
Sunset
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
Sunset by Amy Crook
Over a decade of doing the Starcycles Calendar off and on, I’ve gotten to create a variety of gorgeous art. In 2003, we tried out a wall calendar format, and I created this simple drawing using pastels on rich midnight blue paper. The drawing is very loose and I’ve always liked the way everything in the sky is reflected in the vast ocean below.
Sunset, 22.5″x19″ pastel on colored pastel paper, $199 with free shipping.
Tags: for sale, pastel, starcycles
Posted in Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes | No Comments »
Ophiuchus
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Ophiuchus by Amy Crook
The second Starcycles Calendar I ever laid out was in 2001, and when Georgia asked for Ophiuchus on the cover, I decided to dive in with an oil painting. The image wrapped around the book, so the snake’s tail and field of stars were the back cover, while the figure was the main focus on the front.
Ophiuchus, 9″x12″ oil on canvas, sold.
Tags: constellation, greek myth, nfs, oil painting, snake, starcycles
Posted in Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books | 3 Comments »
Year of the Tiger
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Year of the Tiger by Amy Crook, $299
2010 is going to be year of the Tiger in Chinese astrology. I painted this homage to Henri Rousseau for the cover of the 2010 Starcycles Calendar — every year the cover is by far the most enjoyable part of this big project for me. This time, when we were talking about themes for the year, Georgia brought up Rousseau’s famous Tiger in a Tropical Storm, and from there a painting was born.
Year of the Tiger, 9″x12″, oil on canvas board, $299 with free shipping.
Or keep reading to see how the Tiger got his tail… (more…)
Tags: for sale, jungle, starcycles, tiger
Posted in Daily Art, Series and Books, Shop - Sea Creatures and Other Animals | No Comments »
Year of the Water Horse
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Year of the Water Horse by Amy Crook
One of the design projects I do every year is the Starcycles Calendar, a dayplanner-style appointment book with an astrological bent by Georgia Stathis. For me, the covers are always my favorite part, and something I look forward to every year. 2002 was year of the Water Horse in Chinese astrology, and at the time Georgia had a guest writer who contributed an essay to the book. We were still doing them in print with these three-panel coves that wrapped around, and so when I found this giant 18″x36″ canvas, I just knew I had to use it for that project.
When we were discussing ideas for the cover, I kept thinking of the various stories and legends of horses or unicorns born out of the foam of the ocean, and being the good sport she is, Georgia let me run with it. I first painted the sunny beach in blues and sandy browns with its white, foam-capped surf coming in, and then added the mysterious watery horses with soft pastels on top of the canvas, once it was dry.
Here’s a study I did of just the horses, before I put them onto the painting itself.
And here’s a shot of the painting, before I put the horses in.
Year of the Water Horse, 18″x36″, oil and pastel on canvas, $1199 with free shipping.
Tags: beach, for sale, horse, oil painting, sea sale, starcycles
Posted in Shop - Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Shop - Sea Creatures and Other Animals | No Comments »
