Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom
Posted on May 22nd, 2014
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom; a calligraphic triptych by Amy Crook
Three small words and a simple illustration of a plant going from seed to flower in three panels. A metaphor for creating. A reminder of what it takes to get the beauty of a flower.
Gestate. The tiny green curled in the heart of brown seed.
Uncurl. The plant braves the world, straightens up, spreads its leaves wide.
Blossom. The beauty that can’t exist while the plant is still safe in its seed.
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom, a triptych of watercolor artworks on 4″x6″ Fluid watercolor paper.
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom; three details by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the three tiny watercolor illustrations up close: seed, curled-up sprout, and flower. Below, the trio in frames, lit by warm spring sunshine.
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom; framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Words Words Words
Tags: calligraphy, for sale, triptych, watercolor
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True Story
Posted on May 20th, 2014
True Story, calligraphic art by Amy Crook
A small reminder of the other sides to everything:
Just because a Story is true, that doesn’t make it the Whole Story
We spend a lot of time telling ourselves our stories, whether it’s that time your favorite thing got discontinued because nobody likes what you like, or the time you couldn’t even make your cable box work because you’re no good at technology, or the time you missed a car payment because you’re terrible with money.
A single story becomes the whole story, especially in the negative. We tell ourselves the story and call it the truth, instead of remembering the 37 car payments you did make, the favorite products that have been on the shelves since childhood, or the tech you take for granted every day.
True Story, 6″x4″ pen & ink and glitter gel pen on Fluid watercolor paper.
True Story, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the light shining off the glittery color, highlighting a few important words. Below, the piece waits in a frame to grace someone’s home or workspace, accompanied by a little matching bookmark.
True Story, framed art by Amy Crook
This piece was in last month’s Floating Gallery — if you’d like to get the inside scoop on my art, join my list.
Categories: Floating Gallery, Words Words Words
Tags: calligraphy, glitter gel pen, nfs, pen and ink, sold
Short Friend
Posted on May 15th, 2014
Short Friend, a Sherlock parody comic by Amy Crook
Sherlock apparently underestimates John’s height and level of jaundice in this silly little Despicable Me crossover. He tells the audience, “I took the precaution of a long* coat and a short friend,” while gesturing to the wrong short friend. Poor John!
Well, perhaps Sherlock will remember this next time he wants some tea and John pretends he can’t hear him.
Short Friend, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper. Available as a blank card on Etsy, of course.
Short Friend, a Sherlock/Despicable Me card on Etsy by Amy Crook
* I know, I know, the quote is “good coat” but c’mon, this is cuter.
Categories: Card Design, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: copic marker, despicable me, etsy, john watson, minion, minions, nfs, pen and ink, sherlock, sherlock bbc, sherlock holmes, sold
Doctoral
Posted on May 14th, 2014
Doctoral, a Doctor Who parody comic by Amy Crook
The Doctor is a doctor! Or at least he has snazzy purple doctoral graduation robes, though he seems to have misplaced his tam. That’s all right, fezzes are cool.
He’s available as a seasonally appropriate graduation card in my Etsy shop, especially good for those brave souls out to get their PhDs.
Doctoral, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.
Doctor Who graduation card on Etsy by Amy Crook
Categories: Card Design, Floating Gallery, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: copic marker, doctor who, eleventh doctor, etsy, for sale, pen and ink
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
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