Blog « Antemortem Arts | Art & Writing by Amy Crook

Spiral Sunrise

Posted on January 18th, 2013

Spiral Sunrise by Amy Crook

Spiral Sunrise by Amy Crook

This is one of those hard-to-capture pieces, made of cool sky blues and warm sunny golds that mix and mingle in a way that, weirdly, doesn’t actually make much green. Despite the fact that I’m never awake to see them, I wanted to capture a little bit of that feeling of sunrise, when the golden-warm light seeps upward and honey-dips the cool, night-blue clouds. There’s swirls of orangey-gold Duochrome Adobe, shimmery-cold Iridescent Moonstone, and three different metallic blues, all sharing the space with a warm yellow and sky blue background.

Spiral Sunrise, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper.

Spiral Sunrise, detail, by Amy Crook

Spiral Sunrise, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the coppery Adobe, shimmery blue and night-tinted Moonstone catching the sunlight. Below, the pieces is tucked into a frame, hanging out with my iPhone.

Spiral Sunrise, framed art by Amy Crook

Spiral Sunrise, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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V is for Value

Posted on January 17th, 2013

V is for Value, calligraphic illumination by Amy Crook

V is for Value, calligraphic illumination by Amy Crook

Value is a term for how dark something is, the range from black to white, so I explored that in two ways with this piece. First the V itself is a simple triangle shaded with a brush and pre-mixed black sumi-e ink. Then the background is shaded more like an old-fashioned etching, using the red glitter gel pen and my own wobbly handmade lines to create a fade in the opposite direction.

I have to admit, there’s something very ’80s music video about the result, like the logo for some new wave band. Perhaps there’s a Victor or Virginia in your life that are big fans of Duran Duran and need this in their life.

V is for Value, 5″x5″ sumi-e ink and glitter gel pen on paper.

V is for Value, detail, by Amy Crook

V is for Value, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see a bit of the glittery red gel pen making the pen-shaded light-to-dark value in the background, and just the little tip of the V where the ink was determined to mostly stay at a middle tone. Below, you can see the V hanging out with the O and a little preview of X to spell “vox.”

V, O and X, framed art by Amy Crook

V, O and X, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Daily Art, Illuminated Alphabet, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
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Sherlock Hardcase

Posted on January 16th, 2013

Sherlock Gelaskin iPhone Hardcase, art by Amy Crook

Sherlock Gelaskin iPhone Hardcase, art by Amy Crook

As much as I adore my beloved Gelaskin stickers, my iPhone has been dropped enough times that I really needed a bit more protection. Gelaskin has again come to the rescue with my lovely custom hardcase, featuring my drawing of Sherlock in all his glorious ennui. There’s even a secret hedgehog.

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Rules Gremlin

Posted on January 15th, 2013

Rules Gremlin by Amy Crook for Jo Van Every

Rules Gremlin by Amy Crook for Jo Van Every

I’m afraid this Tuesday is tentacle-free, which is probably against one of the many rules on this Gremlin’s parchment. He’s another commission for Jo VanEvery to use in her work — she’s promised to post about him and yesterday’s cartoon soon, so keep an eye out! I found the first sketch for this in my photos recently (I take iPhone photos to show a client their sketches rather than scanning them, to save a bit of time), and I was amused to remember that he’d originally been tall and skinny. We both liked his scroll so much that I kept the overall height, and instead added some books to stand on and made him wide and squat instead.

Rules Gremlin, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper, nfs (commission), all rights reserved.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
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The Spectre of Professionalism

Posted on January 14th, 2013

The Spectre of Professionalism by Amy Crook for Jo Van Every

The Spectre of Professionalism by Amy Crook for Jo Van Every

Once again Jo VanEvery has commissioned an awesome cartoon to use in her work. She consults academics about academic career sorts of things, and one of the issues that often comes up is the spectre of professionalism. He’s modeled a bit after Marley from A Christmas Carol since I was watching the Muppet version when I did his sketch, which gives him a delightful sort of gloom that goes well with the snippet of academic-speak, overflowing inbox, monogrammed briefcase and perfectly boring suit and tie. His humorless expression tops off the chains of expectation perfectly.

Here’s hoping your Monday isn’t quite so burdened, and that you have plenty of caffeine regardless.

The Spectre of Professionalism, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper, nfs (commission), all rights reserved.

Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
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Cuppa Tentacles

Posted on January 13th, 2013

Cuppa Tentacles sketch by Amy Crook

Cuppa Tentacles sketch by Amy Crook

The holiday season meant coloring books, of course, and I even had time to sketch in most of them! This little cuppa’s got something a bit stronger in it than tea, eek.

Happy Sunday!

Categories: Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
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Sherlock Bookmarks, set of 4

Posted on January 12th, 2013

4 Sherlock bookmarks by Amy Crook

4 Sherlock bookmarks by Amy Crook

The lovely person that bought this John Watson bookmark wanted a whole set of the four lads from the show, and here’s the results! I fortunately have a bunch of these identical paper scraps from cutting down the paper for the alphabet, so it was easy to do four that matched. John and Lestrade are on cool grey backgrounds with warm grey skin, and the Holmeses are all warm greys except for their clothing. Everyone got a bit of personality to them, John in his stripey jumper with the skull art from the show, Sherlock with his violin, Lestrade with his phone at a crime scene and Mycroft with his brolly and wallpaper.

Sherlock Bookmarks, set of 4, 1.875″ x 4.875″ pen & ink and Copic marker on scrap paper, nfs.

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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