Harbingers
Posted on May 8th, 2014
Harbingers by Amy Crook
These crows are flying in ahead of the storm, lightning waiting silvery and shining in the dark clouds above, sunshine glowing off the white clouds in the foreground. They’re harbingers of the storm, bringing rain and darkness and sweeping change in behind them. Each crow is like a smudge on the horizon, that resolves itself into a flying bird when you look at it closely, black in the midst of the blue and violet of the sky.
Harbingers, 8″x4″ pen & ink, watercolor, and glitter gel pen on Fluid watercolor paper.
Harbingers by Amy Crook
Above, I’ve tilted the painting so that the glittering spirals catch the light, lightning limning the dark clouds. Below, you can see the painting in a temporary frame, a snippet of stormy sky like the smell of ozone on a hot day.
Harbingers by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: clouds, crow, horizons, nfs, pen and ink, sold, spirals, watercolor
Blue Lilacs
Posted on May 7th, 2014
Blue Lilacs, abstract art by Amy Crook
If you sit in the shadows of lilac trees and look up at the sunny sky, the color can get washed away, turning the flowers into shadowy blues and purples, whiting out the edges of the leaves and making the sky seem like a bright, endless light. We had this row of lilac trees where I was growing up, and I had many adventures as a kid beneath them, imagining the tunnel between the rows as any number of fantastical places.
Blue Lilacs, 4″x6″ Primatek watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Blue Lilacs, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see some of the subtle layering of desaturated blue and violet, framed by the brighter green with its sun-washed edges. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, like a tiny piece of summer you can have year-round.
Blue Lilacs, framed art by Amy Crook
Can you smell the lilacs?
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: flowers, nfs, sold, watercolor
Blood Moon 5
Posted on May 6th, 2014
Blood Moon 5 by Amy Crook
Another Blood Moon made its way into my work queue this month, this time by adding some very subtle tentacles to an older painting in lieu of the previous image. This one is much more eerie than the last one, the bloody color leeching from the shadow to the white parts of the moon, and a second, smaller moon waiting off to one side, ruddy and strange. This sky is not our sky, or perhaps it is our sky many millennia hence, when the stars have become right and Great Cthulhu will rise up from R’lyeh to reclaim the planet for himself.
Blood Moon 5, 5″x7″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Blood Moon 5, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can more clearly see the subtle mist and dark black tentacles rising up from the bottom of the painting, reaching toward the bloody moons. Below, the piece rests in a frame, a little window to some awful future*, or perhaps somewhere very far away indeed.
Blood Moon 5, framed art by Amy Crook
*Perhaps it’s Thundarr the Barbarian’s future, instead of Cthulhu’s. I always did like Ookla.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, blood moon, for sale, japanese watercolor, moon, more cowbell, tentacles, watercolor
Blue Violet
Posted on May 5th, 2014
Blue Violet, abstract art by Amy Crook
Beautiful, richly layered color and shine make this painting live up to its name. There’s really only 2 colors each of normal watercolor, shiny watercolor, and glitter gel pen, but their interactions create an amazing level of fractal detail and variety of shades from blue to violet.
This painting would bring a gorgeous pop of color to an otherwise drab office or wall.
Blue Violet, 8″x8″ watercolor, iridescent watercolor, and glitter gel pen on Fluid watercolor paper.
Blue Violet, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a hint of the glitter pen hiding in the paint, blue lines and purple spirals floating atop the color. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, bright and beautiful against the black.
Blue Violet, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: blue, duochrome, glitter gel pen, iridescent, nfs, purple, sold, violet, watercolor
Blood Moon 4
Posted on May 4th, 2014
Blood Moon 4 by Amy Crook
May the Fourth be with you! I chose a swirly, spiraled abstraction of a real-life space phenomenon today to go with the long time ago and far, far away that today brings to mind.
It’s a bright, warm afternoon when I’m writing this, and the cold hour standing outside when I saw the Blood Moon eclipse does seem rather long ago and far away. I spent almost an hour staring up at the sky, eyes fixed on the sliver of moon above through the haze of clouds that waxed and waned. I could only see Spica and Mars of all the bright objects, because I’m in the middle of a city in the middle of a lot of other cities, but I could see enough to be worth the chilled feet.
Blood Moon 4, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor, duochrome watercolor, and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Blood Moon 4, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the bright red and gold glitter shining atop the much more muted red-brown and white eclipsed moon. Below, you can see the piece in a frame with its shining mist.
Blood Moon 4, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, blood moon, duochrome, for sale, glitter gel pen, iridescent, iridescent watercolor, japanese watercolor, moon, watercolor
Nine Crows
Posted on May 3rd, 2014
Nine Crows by Amy Crook
Nine tiny crows fly in from afar, black against a stark white page. The widescreen expanse of paper adds to the feeling of distance.
Nine Crows, 8″x4″ pen & ink on Fluid watercolor paper.
Nine Crows, detail, by Amy Crook
As above, so below.
Nine Crows, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: black and white, crow, for sale, pen and ink
Fetch the Cultist
Posted on April 24th, 2014
Fetch the Cultist,
Lovecraft parody art by Amy Crook
The Hound of Tindalos is one of the most evil, annoying monsters to draw while playing Arkham Horror, and so of course I wanted to draw one being adorable. He’s playing fetch the cultist with Cthulhu! I’m sure the one he’s brought is only slightly chewed.
There’s not actually any real description of the hound in the books, it’s only called that because once it gets a time traveler’s scent, it will follow him through space and time like a hunting hound.
My idea is cuter.
Fetch the Cultist, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper. You can get him in black & white in my Cthulhu Holiday Fun Book, or pick up the original during May’s Floating Gallery.
Fetch the Cultist, framed art by Amy Crook
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Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: copic marker, cthulhu, cultist, hound of tindalos, lovecraft, pen and ink
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