Osculate! Osculate!
Posted on October 14th, 2013
Osculate! Doctor Who fan art by Amy Crook
I meant to finish and post this last week after the Floating Gallery closed, by my body had other ideas. I’ve had a horrible head cold, and slept through most of the week. I’m only just recovering, so please do forgive the lateness of this Dalek.
He’s giving up his usual cry of “exterminate” in favor of some holiday spirit! Osculate means “kiss,” so he’s just demanding you give him his due and kiss a Dalek under the mistletoe. I’m sure it won’t kill you.
Well, mostly sure.
Osculate! 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper. Get him on a holiday card at my Etsy shop!
Osculate! Dalek holiday card by Amy Crook at Etsy
Categories: Card Design, Floating Gallery, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: copic marker, dalek, doctor who, for sale, holiday, pen and ink
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey
Posted on October 8th, 2013
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey
Doctor Who art by Amy Crook
Everyone needs a tiny TARDIS in their lives, don’t they? This one is rocketing through the wibbly wobbly timey wimey spaces between possibilities. It looks pretty turbulent, with streaks of blue and green and strange stars of sparkling salt all around.
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, 4″x6″ pen & ink, salt and watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, detail, by Amy Crook
One problem with painting in gorgeous bright, clear blues is that they get a bit muddled by my scanner, but you can see the contrast in the piece much more clearly above. The TARDIS floats alongside sparkling salt and strange shapes, with the Doctor and perhaps even a Companion or two tucked safely inside.
Below, the painting hangs out in a frame, safe from the forces of time and space. For now.
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: blue, doctor who, green, pen and ink, salt, tardis, watercolor
Spiral Dragon
Posted on October 7th, 2013
Spiral Dragon by Amy Crook
Red Sharpie scales cover the entire page, showing through and informing the shapes of everything above them.
Dragons are often identified by their colors. Red and blue make purple, make violet. This dragon has fire in his eyes and ice along his belly.
Is his breath hot or cold? Is that smoke or mist curling from his mouth? Do those spikes cauterize as they pierce, melt the strongest armor or chill it to shattering, or neither, merely sharp, merely tipped in shining red?
Seemingly endless spiral scales are there to protect him, but as Neil Gaiman says, “dragons have one soft spot, somewhere, always.”
Spiral Dragon, 8″x8″ Sharpie marker, watercolor and iridescent watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Spiral Dragon, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the sunlight reflecting off the iridescent sapphire of the dragon’s underbelly, and the way the red Sharpie spirals show through everything. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, just waiting for the perfect wall.
Spiral Dragon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: blue, dragon, iridescent, nfs, purple, red, sharpie marker, sold, spiral, spirals, watercolor
Brass Gates to Midnight 2
Posted on October 5th, 2013
Brass Gates to Midnight 2 by Amy Crook
Last year I painted Brass Gates to Midnight, and posted it to the blog even though it never quite felt finished to me. I decided to pull out the old piece and rework it. I spent several hours with my brown and gold paint adding depth and weight to the gates, turning the spirals from insubstantial mist to thick vines frozen in a riot of growth. I added a sheen of starlight on the dark trees, and even gave the tiny fairy tucked in the gates a bit more detail and color.
The inner spaces of the gate remain black, blocking our sight to the lands we can see through the gap and over the top. Are you tempted to push them fully open and wander into the starlit places beyond?
Brass Gates to Midnight 2, 5″x5″ Japanese and iridescent watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Brass Gates to Midnight 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the little brown-and-green fairy hiding in among the brass curls of the gate. Is he luring you in, or warning you away? Perhaps it’s a bit of both.
Below, you can see the piece in a frame, like a window onto another set of possibilities.
Brass Gates to Midnight 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black paper, fairy, for sale, iridescent, japanese watercolor, metallic, more cowbell, spiral, spirals, stars, watercolor
A Series of Uncanny Fears: The Dark
Posted on October 4th, 2013
A Series of Uncanny Fears: The Dark
pen and ink art by Amy Crook
Those shapes you see in the dark, those are just shadows. Just reflections and illusions made up of your imagination and your eyes straining to make sense with very little light.
I’m sure there are no monsters lurking at the foot of your bed, no ghosts floating up near the ceiling, no faces peering in from the dark outside.
That scratching at the glass is getting louder, but it’s not necessarily from the dark. It could be the mirror. It could be inside your head.
You never really know, do you?
A Series of Uncanny Fears: The Dark, 5″x7″ pen & ink on paper.
A Series of Uncanny Fears: The Dark, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see some of the details hiding in the darkness. I especially like this pair of eyes, because they seem as distressed to be looking in at you as you are to be looking out at them. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, yet another pane of glass between you and the darkness.
A Series of Uncanny Fears: The Dark, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: a series of uncanny fears, crosshatching, edward gorey, for sale, gorey, pen and ink, uncanny fears
A Series of Uncanny Fears: Your Shadow
Posted on October 3rd, 2013
A Series of Uncanny Fears: Your Shadow
pen and ink art by Amy Crook
I’m not certain what my favorite thing about this piece is, but it’s risen to the top of A Series of Uncanny Fears for me. I love the Gorey-esque fur coat on the figure just passing out of the frame. I adore the wallpaper pattern you can see showing through the shadowy figure. And I think the overlong, many-jointed fingers of the shadow are delightfully creepy.
I’m sure your shadow doesn’t hunger to steal the life you live, to step into the light, to slip into your skin and live looking out of your eyes. There’s nothing to worry about at all.
You could make sure you always know where it is, just in case, though.
Just in case.
A Series of Uncanny Fears: Your Shadow, 5″x7″ pen & ink on paper.
A Series of Uncanny Fears: Your Shadow, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up shot of the wallpaper pattern both bare and hiding under the shadow. Below, you can see the piece happily ensconced in a frame, safe behind the glass. That sound you hear isn’t claws against the inside of the glass, I’m sure of it. After all, there’s so much glass in your home, you can’t really pinpoint where the sound is coming from.
A Series of Uncanny Fears: Your Shadow, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: a series of uncanny fears, crosshatching, edward gorey, for sale, gorey, pen and ink, uncanny fears
Map to an Undiscovered Country
Posted on October 2nd, 2013
Map to an Undiscovered Country by Amy Crook
I’m going to post a bit more about some of the pieces in October’s Floating Gallery for the next couple of weeks, starting with this one! If there’s a piece you’re curious about, feel free to ask.
This painting was directly inspired by a patron’s reaction to one of last month’s pieces. You know who you are, and thank you! It’s been a month of being fascinated with maps, for me, so this was a good way to explore that.
There’s two kinds of pen and ink on here, my teeny tiny Micron pen outlining the fjords and inlets around this strange country, and the thicker Japanese Pilot fountain pens in deep green and dark brown forming the inner details.
The line across the middle feels like a river and lake to me, but what if it’s a border, a fault, a plateau or crater? I love the mystery created by the map, making you wonder if the yellow is beaches or deserts or something else. Are those deep green spaces forests or mountains? If the brown aren’t roads, what are they? Are there even people in this undiscovered land, or are you the first to gaze upon it?
Map to an Undiscovered Country, 5″x7″ pen & ink and watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Map to an Undiscovered Country, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the paper texture interacting with the media to create detail, the tiny hand-drawn borders making strange borders, the thicker lines intersecting and the edge of the shape in the center. Below, you can see it in the frame I got especially for this piece, though of course once it finds a new home I’ll be able to re-purpose this, should the frame not go with it.
Map to an Undiscovered Country, framed art by Amy Crook
I’ll end on a note about works in pen and ink. Most colored inks are made with dyes and are less lightfast than the pigments in paint. If you put your art somewhere that gets direct sunlight, it will fade like an old map despite the high quality art paper. So don’t do that.
Actually, don’t do that to any art, because even the most lightfast pigments degrade over time. Also, it’s just not nice.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, green, map, pen and ink, watercolor
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