Sunday Round-up & Cat sketch
Posted on May 26th, 2013
tentacles and brains and monsters, oh my!
Another week, another half dozen oddities. Monday the monsters got put down for a nap, and Tuesday I indulged in a big bowl of Brainton Soup. Wednesday I gave you all a peek into some of the things I’m working on. Thursday there was a completely awesome recipe for ice cream bread, and Friday this angler fish offered to eat it, and you. Finally, Saturday Cthulhu showed you his Ace of Hearts.
And now that it’s Sunday, there’s a sketch! I’ve been working on more animals, and so I sketched up this cat in my wee sketchbook to try to get his design more refined.
Cat sketch by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sunday Round-Up
Tags: pencil, sketch
2 Comments »
Ace of Cthulhu Hearts
Posted on May 25th, 2013
Ace of Cthulhu Hearts by Amy Crook
One of my friends asked me for a playing card prop for her Lady Luck costume at a con this weekend, and so I used my Cthulhu’s heart art and popped it into a quickie design. If I was going to do the cards for real, I’d probably do something more elaborate for the background, but I didn’t feel like fighting with the white background on the heart image. I printed a page of them on cardstock for her to cut up into a prop (I put 9 on the page so she’d have plenty of extras), and she’s planning to put one in the brim of her top hat.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: cthulhu
Angler Fish 1
Posted on May 24th, 2013
Angler Fish 1 by Amy Crook, $250
After I painted this bloody red background, deliberately deep and dark, I thought that a glowing blue Angler fish would be the perfect thing to go on top of it. I love the contrast between the abstract, color-field-like painting in the background, all matte and dark Japanese watercolors that sank into the textured black paper, and the drawing-like simplicity of the fish on top. She’s got deceptive amounts of detail, from the subtle shading on her creepy blank eye to the deliberate comic “shine” marks around her phosphorescent lure. The paint itself is a little bit shiny, with some duochrome Aquamarine mixed in with the white and turquoise to create a shiny paint that sits on top of the background rather than blending in.
Also, she’s magnificently creepy. Win!
Angler Fish 1, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper, $250 with free shipping.
Angler Fish 1, work in progress, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the murky background painting along with the little pre-sketch I did to fix the design in my head. I didn’t want to pencil directly onto the paint, so I just doodled it on a bit of scratch paper instead. Below, you can see a close-up of the angler’s lure and her shiny paint looking very bright against the matte depths behind her.
Angler Fish 1, detail, by Amy Crook
And finally, you can see the fish in her frame! I keep saying her because, of course, male angler fish are wee, pathetic little things doomed to die in the service of their species. I feel comfortable putting these links off my site here, because none of you ever read this far down, anyway.
Angler Fish 1, framed art by Amy Crook
- Title: Angler Fish 1
- 7 in. x 5 in. watercolor, Japanese watercolor, and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper
- $250 for the original (tax will be added if you live in CA)
- Frame is not included, but can be added for $50 (shipping included)
- Shipping is free anywhere in the world
- Payment plans are available, just email me
- The button below will take you to Paypal – if you’d like to pay another way, just let me know and we’ll work it out
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: angler fish, black paper, fish, for sale, iridescent, japanese watercolor, watercolor
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Random Recipe: Ice Cream Bread
Posted on May 23rd, 2013
That’s right, ice cream bread. This is actually the simplest recipe I’ve ever posted or probably even made, so it’s ridiculous that I drew three pictures for it, which is why you’re getting this extra text at the top. Seriously, super easy.
The result is a bit like a cross between a quick bread (eg banana bread) and a cupcake. Fluffy, sweet, and really delicious.
Preheat oven to 350F. Lubricate a loaf pan with spray oil or butter or whatever. There, now you’ve prepped.
Take one pint of slightly melty ice cream, add to 1.5 cups of self-rising flour. The self-rising is very important here, or else you will not get delicious fluffy bread. If you don’t have self-rising flour you can readily google the way to make your own by adding baking powder/soda and salt in the appropriate quantities.
I used my Kitchenaid Mixer to mix it all up, because the ice cream was still pretty frozen at that point. Mix until the flour is all wet, into a rather cold, sticky, thick batter. Put that in the pan you already oiled up. Bake for 45 minutes or so, until the top is starting to get golden brown and delicious. Cool a bit before you try to turn it out of the pan, or it will all fall apart.
One caveat in choosing ice cream flavors is to really think about the fact that this is going into a hot oven. Cookie dough ice cream, for instance, will probably not be so great once the cookie dough gets half-baked inside the bread. Ben & Jerry’s Peach Cobbler, however, was awesome.
Seriously, awesome.
Bread made out of ice cream. What more could life offer?
To recap:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Oil or butter a loaf pan.
- 1 pint of ice cream added to 1.5 cups of self-rising flour.
- Bake for 45 min or until golden brown and delicious.
- Awesome.
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: food, nfs, recipe, sharpie
2 Comments »
Works in Progress
Posted on May 22nd, 2013
stuff wot I’ve got goin’ on
I thought I’d do a bit of a WIPs Weds, though this is but a sample of my pile of half-abandoned art. Those following my Instagram probably recognize the two on the right, which are still waiting to be worked on after a couple of weeks of waffling. I really like the way this tentacle piece came out, which is why I tried out the red spirals, but I’m not sure tentacles are the right answer so it’s waiting for something to come to me. Or for me to give up and paint tentacles on it. The green one has this interesting leafy/feathery sort of texture that’s quite pale and again, I haven’t quite hit upon the right foreground to go with the background. Some sort of fairy, perhaps.
In the upper left you have the sketch for H is for (Mrs) Hudson, the next installment in my Baker Street Tinies series. Then there’s a belated birthday card with the Eleventh Doctor that’s waiting for my TARDIS (okay, Lapis) blue marker refill to show up, and below that is the pencils to the very first panel of my rather stalled Giant Rats of Sumatra project. Then finally in the lower left is a strange little landscape with two bloody moons and a dark city below, waiting for me to figure out what details I want to add.
Is there anything you were hoping I was working on?
Categories: Daily Art, Works In Progress
Tags: wip
2 Comments »
Brainton Soup
Posted on May 21st, 2013
Brainton Soup by Amy Crook
I have a friend who always says that wonton soup looks like little brains floating in broth, so, this is totally her fault. The tentacles are taking place of the bok choi, cabbage, spinach or whatever random greens your chosen Chinese place uses in their soup. Also, tentacles. I even gave the bowl a nice design of my very own madness-inducing fake Mythos alphabet. Because I could.
What’s sad is that I’ve now done enough paintings with that text in it that I could generate this one without looking up a reference. Either that, or it really is all messages from beyond the stars.
I’m thinking this would make a great t-shirt, so if there’s interest it might go up on my meager little Redbubble account. What do you think?
Brainton Soup, 7″x5″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.
Brainton Soup, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a detail of the brains and tentacles. I tried to color the brains somewhere between the warm yellow of wonton wrappers and the unhealthy pink of a real brain, and I think the result is pleasantly disturbing. Below, you can see the brains in a frame, with Cthulhu there to keep the tentacles in line.
Brainton Soup, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: brains, copic marker, for sale, pen and ink, tentacles
Monster Naptime
Posted on May 20th, 2013
Monster Naptime by Amy Crook, 5″x7″ pen & ink and watercolor on paper
After last week’s pair of Monster paintings, I decided to do a follow-up to start the week off right. This is, after all, the best perspective from which to deal with the adorable little pests. Once they’ve had a nap, I’m sure they won’t be quite so grumpy.
The clever among you will notice that it’s the artist holding the monsters. The persnickety will notice my part is on the wrong side, which is artistic license. And yes, I do have a nose in real life.
Monster Naptime, detail, by Amy Crook
Above you can see the cranky cuties up close and full of meh. Below, I’ve put myself and my monsters behind glass, and Cthulhu himself came by to hang out. He’s got this sleeping thing down pat, after all.
Monster Naptime, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, monster, pen and ink, self portrait, watercolor
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