Tenth Doctor sketch 1
Posted on May 20th, 2012
Tenth Doctor, sketch 1,
by Amy Crook
I have finally accepted the inevitability that I’ll end up drawing Doctor Who cartoons, and as such worked up this little sketch of the Tenth Doctor. I’m not sure I’ve quite got his chin and mad hair working yet, but the costume is just right.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: doctor who, nfs, pencil, sketch
meh
Posted on May 19th, 2012
meh Puppy t-shirt design by Amy Crook
I actually drew this little guy on my whiteboard a few weeks ago, and I was so fond of him I redrew him in Illustrator and put him on a t-shirt. Personally I have enough t-shirts to choke a small elephant, but I might have to buy one of him anyway, since there are just a lot of meh days to go around and my sad panda shirt can’t do all the heavy lifting.
meh Puppy, Adobe Illustrator & Wacom tablet.
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: illustration, illustrator, meh, puppy, t-shirt
Skully Mini Volant
Posted on May 18th, 2012
Skully Mini Volant customized Moleskine by Amy Crook
This XSmall Volant is only 4″ tall, making it perfect to tuck into a pocket, purse or pouch. A friend bought the grey set and then tossed this one at me to decorate, and since he bribed me with tea, treats and cocktails, I was happy to oblige. He didn’t give me any direction, so he got skulls and crosshatching, which I’m sure comes as a huge shock.
I’m considering picking up another set of them for my Etsy shop, but we’ll see. Some things just work better when I’m not worried about finding an audience for them.
Skully Mini Volant, 2.7″x4″ Sharpie oil paint markers on Moleskine XSmall Volant, nfs.
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: moleskine, sharpie, sharpie marker, volant
Galaxies
Posted on May 17th, 2012
Galaxies, abstract art by Amy Crook
From some angles the background of this piece looks as black as the space between galaxies, or at least as black as the paper it’s painted on. Shift it just a little though, and a liberal dusting of silver stars sparkles up in the blackness, making the whole piece shimmer. The iridescent green paint, opaque blue and glittering salt form mysterious shapes floating in the black, broken spirals and strange pools of color.
I was just playing when I made the spirals, wanting some different shapes and enjoying the bigger page, which was more forgiving of the lack of precision from the salt water solution. It sat around for a few weeks after it dried while I decided what to do with it, and in the end I decided a subtle dusting of silver paint would best set off the shapes. I ended up brushing most of the silver particles back off the page, which makes the whole effect much more subtly supporting instead of overwhelming.
Galaxies, 10″x8″ salt and watercolor on paper.
Galaxies, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can see the golden afternoon light reflecting off the salt and paint in this particular spiral formation. Below, the strange little frost that formed where the water flowed off the edge and then soaked into the corner of the paper.
Galaxies, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And of course I’ve taken a photo with frame, desk and iPhone, to give you an idea of how big it is in real life.
Galaxies, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, blue, iridescent, nfs, salt, silver, watercolor
All Out of Words
Posted on May 16th, 2012
I’m all out of words for this Weds, regular posting will resume tomorrow as usual with more art.
Words are hard, man.
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tentacle Deeps 35
Posted on May 15th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 35, watercolor by Amy Crook
Someone asked me at the gallery on Saturday why I like tentacles, and I didn’t have a really good answer. I like painting them a lot, in part because it’s an interesting combination of spontaneous and planned art, in that the tentacles can go all over the place but keep a certain smooth taper to them while they do, and I always try to get a certain distribution of shapes and sizes in so that the piece itself is aesthetically pleasing as well as creepy.
This particular paper isn’t really meant to be watercolor paper, and it absorbed the paint without letting it float on top at all, giving a stripey quality to the blue gradation in the background. The paper itself has a lot of little dotted inclusions that add texture to the piece, and the tentacles themselves are painted in Japanese sumi-e ink rather than watercolor to take better advantage of the paper’s absorbency.
Tentacle Deeps 35, 8″x10″ ink and watercolor on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 35, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the shine off the very base of the tentacles where the black sumi-e ink is the thickest. Below, the piece waits in its frame, taking up nearly my whole tiny writing desk as it poses with my iPhone for scale.
Tentacle Deeps 35, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, sumi-e ink, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Silver Moon
Posted on May 14th, 2012
Silver Moon, watercolor by Amy Crook
It’s been a while since I gave you a new moon for Monday, so I thought it was about time. I did the salt pools for this one in a variety of sizes, using the clear salt water I made so even the smallest droplet left some salt behind when it dried. I used some powdered silver watercolor I have on hand to create a lovely colorless sky this time, with halos around the biggest star and an outward-fading spiral for the moon.
The reason I talk about the process so much is that’s what I’m mostly thinking about as I work, trying to get the effect I want out of the materials I’m using. I thinned out the silver paint to a specific thickness for the outer two circles on the moon, wanting there to be a delineation between the moon itself and the light that shines from it the way there is with the stars. I went for one big spiral this time because it seemed to fit with the rest, even though the star field is more complicated than in some similar pieces.
I try not to overthink these decisions as I’m making them, because the pieces work best when they’re not too fussy, with swooping paint strokes and not-quite-random scatterings of salt.
Silver Moon, 6″x4″ salt and watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Silver Moon, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the light reflecting off the silver paint where it’s most opaque, as well as highlighting the smaller, un-haloed stars in the black. Below, the piece is framed and sitting next to my trusty iPhone for scale.
Silver Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, for sale, moon, salt, silver, watercolor
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