Gold Spirals 2
Posted on February 8th, 2013
Gold Spirals 2, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
As promised on Monday, here’s the sequel to the first set of self-indulgent spirals. This one used the same 3 colors of gold, but a different duochrome accent. You can see how the layers build on one another from dark to light, with the duochrome adobe paint making a bright coppery splash in the upper right. Despite the sense of impending chaos, I find these rather peaceful to look at, a lovely mix of matte and metallic, deliberate and gestural.
Gold Spirals 2, metallic and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Gold Spirals 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, I’ve shot this from the corner so it looks almost like sunlight filtering down in swirls rather than rays, exaggerating the contrast from dark to light. Below, you can see this painting and its predecessor on my lovely antique desk. I’ve taken the glass out of the frames to help with glare, and you can see my iPhone hanging out for scale.
Gold Spirals 1 & 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, duochrome, for sale, gold, gold spirals, watercolor
Y is for Yarn
Posted on February 7th, 2013
Y is for Yarn, calligraphic illumination by Amy Crook
I was having trouble thinking of something good to do for Y, when the lovely ladies in the Starship suggested what was to them the obvious solution – yarn! I got a skein of handdyed cotton yarn from the wonderful Blonde Chicken Boutique, and then set to work. She sent me this gorgeous variegated light pink, so I used my favorite periwinkle paint and purple gel pen to create a background that looked like a tangle of yarn, then embroidered in the letter and border with the lovely pink yarn. I glued the paper to a cardboard backing so it wouldn’t tear through, and now it’s all ready for your favorite knitter, Yael or Yakov.
Y is for Yarn, 5″x5″ handdyed yarn, Japanese watercolor and glitter gel pen on paper and cardboard.
Y is for Yarn, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the shine of light off the purple glitter, and the textures of real and imagined yarn juxtaposed on the mottled periwinkle background. Below, the Y is hanging out with W and A to make WAY on my desk.
W is for Watercolor, A is for Arabesque and Y is for Yarn, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Illuminated Alphabet, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: alphabet, calligraphy, for sale, glitter gel pen, illumination, periwinkle, pink, purple, watercolor, yarn
Visions of the Moon
Posted on February 6th, 2013
From filigree and spirals to quiet realism, I’ve painted many moons over the past few years. Enjoy a few of them.
(If you’re looking at this in an email, you might want to click through to see the post where there’s actual layout.)
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: moon, wordless weds
Tentacle Deeps 46
Posted on February 5th, 2013
Tentacle Deeps 46 by Amy Crook
Something new for the tentacles today! I used the same metallic watercolors from yesterday’s Gold Spirals, though I painted the background on this a while ago, so they weren’t actually sharing a palette. Then tentacles as usual in an opaque Japanese greenish black, and finally the runes borrowed from The Stars Are Right series crawling in shining red up the surface of each, wrapping around and writhing right along with them. I had originally considered doing the runes in green, but I decided the dull glow of red glitter pen would work better for this painting.
Tentacle Deeps 46, 6″x4″ Japanese and metallic watercolor and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Tentacle Deeps 46, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the way the runes curve and writhe with the tentacles, against the background that fades upward from rose to lemon gold. Below, you can see it tucked safely into a frame where it won’t harm anyone. Just don’t look too closely at the runes if you want to keep all of your sanity intact.
Tentacle Deeps 46, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, for sale, gold, red, stars are right, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
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Gold Spirals 1
Posted on February 4th, 2013
Gold Spirals 1, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
You may have noticed the sad lack of posts last week, which was the result of my winter lull. November and December are such huge months of creativity for me that inevitably the fields needed to lie fallow and have a bit of a creative winter. Last Friday I finally pulled out some black paper and my set of 7 metallic paint powders (they turn to watercolor when water is added, but can also be mixed into oils or acrylics). Then I chose a range of 3 different golds — a warm rose gold, a rich yellow gold and a cool pale gold — and played around.
These are very self-indulgent spirals, loosely inspired by patterns I’ve seen around, the cuffs on the robe of the Theurgy Warden Mouse in my silly FB game addiction, the background pattern on a website I ran across, the colors of the paints themselves. I layered from dark to bright, warm to cool, and then came in at the end and added a very thin, subtle extra set of spirals in duochrome tropic sunrise, which is what’s giving off the green in the scan. It’s only really visible as different from the rest of the gold in the right light, but the scanner usually does a good job of picking that up.
Gold Spirals 1, 6″x4″ metallic and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Gold Spirals 1, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a shot of the spirals in sunlight, each layer of metals catching the light just a little differently. Below, I’ve put it with the other self-indulgent spirals from last Friday, which you’ll see posted this Friday. If you decide you want them both, you can always email me to hold them for you.
Gold Spirals 1 & 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, duochrome, for sale, gold, gold spirals, watercolor
2 Comments »
X is for Xerography
Posted on January 31st, 2013
X is for Xerography, calligraphic illumination by Amy Crook
X marks the spot! It was surprisingly easy to find a candidate for my X, and I had a lot of fun with this, making little Xs in black and white and glittery pen, then xeroxing them, pasting them up, and xeroxing them again, and finally cutting & assembling all the xeroxed bits and outlining them in silver glitter.
Somehow I think the monks who illuminated manuscripts with gilt and ink didn’t have half so much fun.
X is for Xerography, 5″x5″ xerography, collage and glitter gel pen on paper.
X is for Xerography, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the layers of paper and glitter fitting together on one leg of the X. Below, you can see it with the V and O making VOX, one of my favorite Scrabble words.
V, O and X, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Illuminated Alphabet, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: alphabet, calligraphy, for sale, glitter gel pen, illumination, silver, xerography
Tentacles in Progress
Posted on January 29th, 2013
Soon there will be tentacles here. Soon.
No tentacles yet, but I give you an oblique shot of a background soon to have writhing tentacles. I’ve got something interesting planned for these tentacles, which will hopefully be worth waiting for.
Also, shiny. Oooooohshiny.
This post brought to you by the epic amounts of work I am sloooowly getting current with.
Categories: Daily Art, Tentacles, Works In Progress
Tags: wip
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