Blue-Green Spirals
Posted on February 24th, 2012
Blue-Green Spirals, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
And here’s the last of the Spirals Trio, the blue-green ones that don’t overlap at all. The two darker shades of green are nearly the same here, though there’s a little more variation in real life. Blue-green shades are really the hardest to reproduce electronically, they always end up muddy or too much in one or the other direction. In this one I tried to let the spirals really dance together without putting one atop the other, so they swirl and snuggle and intertwine instead.
Blue-Green Spirals, 5″x7″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Spirals Trio, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, blue, green, japanese watercolor, nfs, sold, spirals, spirals trio, triptych
Potterly Love
Posted on February 23rd, 2012
Potterly Love, cartoon by Amy Crook
Is it James Potter and little Harry, or grown-up Harry and little James Sirius? In my mind it’s a little of both, James and Harry sharing a moment of fatherly love from one generation to the next. I even gave them Gryffindor-themed colors, with warm baby yellow and bright fatherly red.
I have to admit, my favorite part about drawing Harry Potter is the hair, which is always a fun, scribbly mess. Baby hair is just a little different, wispier and more staticky while being just as much of a mess as dad’s infamous mop.
Potterly Love, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper.
Potterly Love, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: baby, copic marker, etsy, father, for sale, Harry Potter, pen and ink, son
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Blue-Violet Spirals
Posted on February 22nd, 2012
Blue-Violet Spirals, abstract art by Amy Crook
A companion to Monday’s piece, this one overlaps the one big purple spiral that’s barely visible in the background with a play of lighter ones in bluer tones. The lightest is a lovely periwinkle, and the three colors together (and really this whole series) reminds me forcefully of my crayon box from childhood. The pure tones of this paint scan horribly, though really the dark purple really does sink into the black paper to become barely visible the way it is here. You can see the play of shapes better in the bigger version of the scan.
Blue-Violet Spirals, 7″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
You can see the color better in its frame below despite the glare, especially the darker background spiral.
Spirals Trio, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, blue, japanese watercolor, nfs, purple, sold, spirals, spirals trio, triptych, violet
Tentacle Deeps 26
Posted on February 21st, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 26 by Amy Crook
I went for a warm, soft brown on this installment of the tentacles, with layers of tentacles fading into the murky waters. the tentacles are painted with my favorite granulating lunar black to give that lovely texture, and the background itself has some bloodstone in it to add to the texture. I find these very meditative to do, just thinking about how to arrange the curls and swirls in an attractive pattern without too much repeat or too little visual interest.
The visual texture on this one is very rich and soft, though the paper is quite stiff. Beware the velvety tentacles, their embrace is insidious.
Tentacle Deeps 26, 5.25″x7″ watercolor on paper.
I haven’t actually framed this one yet, it’ll have to go in an 8″x10″ frame with a mat because of the slightly too-wide paper that a certain artist was slackery about tearing to size. You can still enjoy the traditional close-up shot below, though.
Tentacle Deeps 26, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: brown, for sale, rust, sharpie marker, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Red-Violet Spirals
Posted on February 20th, 2012
Red-Violet Spirals, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
I’m going to mix up the schedule this week a little, I have three related pieces (this is the first) that I’ll post Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and then there’s Tentacles for Tuesday of course, and more tentacles in the form of a Weeble Squid for Thursday. In addition, on Friday I’ll post a special button to buy all three pieces framed and ready to display.
I have several sheets of this velvety black paper from days gone by, and I’ve torn it down into smaller pieces that I pull out sometimes when I’m not sure what I want to work on. I was wanting to do something immediate, which meant no salt, and so I got out my big palette of Japanese watercolors (yay birthday presents) and got all the pans wet. I took out three sheets of the black paper and layered spirals on each in a color family, experimenting with light and dark, overlapping and not. I think this was actually the third one finished, but I can’t quite remember.
I decided on the spirals because I love spirals. I have no idea why, I just do, and one of my things I wanted to do this year was paint more spirals on things. This one ended up looking almost like a Valentine, actually, with just a hint of a heart in the final arrangement of shapes.
Red-Violet Spirals, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
My scanner did not like this series, and so you can get a better idea of the actual color in the photo below.
Spirals Trio, three watercolor abstracts by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, burgundy, japanese watercolor, nfs, pink, red, sold, spirals, spirals trio, triptych
1 Comment »
Sherlock Bookmark 4
Posted on February 19th, 2012
Sherlock Bookmark 4 by Amy Crook
Secret Bonus Post! I had one more bookmark than would fit in my usual 6-day week, so I decided to go ahead and post this one on Sunday. If you can’t read my handwriting, click the image above for a bigger version.
When I was working on this, first I drew tiny John & Sherlock, and then I decided what John was upset about. I didn’t really plan it ahead, just let the joke unfold in the space I had, then went back and fixed the typo when I inked it. I had fun drawing tiny Sherlock popping his collar like a boss.
Sherlock Bookmark 4, 7″x1″ pen and ink on paper, nfs (sold).
Sherlock Bookmark 4, with book, by Amy Crook
You can see the little cartoon above with a standard hardcover book, just waiting to mark someone’s place with secret delight.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: bookmark, comic, nfs, pen and ink, sherlock, sold
Spiral Bookmark 1
Posted on February 18th, 2012
Spiral Bookmark 1
by Amy Crook
And so we wave a cheerful goodbye to Bookmark Week with this last installment.
I was experimenting with these pigment-dense watercolor sticks I picked up, using the teal and orange pair to create a very bright contrast indeed. I wasn’t quite happy with it as is, though, so I added in the silver spirals on top with this awesome silver brush pen I got in Japantown, which gives a nice bit of shine to the piece.
Spiral Bookmark 1, 1.5″x7″ watercolor and brush pen on paper, nfs, sold.
Spiral Bookmark 1, detail, by Amy Crook
Above you can see the various textures from the drawn lines to the washes created by running a wet brush over the watercolor stick, to the shining silver paint floating atop it all. Below, the bookmark sits happily with a book, just waiting to fulfill its intended purpose.
Spiral Bookmark 1, with book, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: bookmark, brush pen, nfs, orange, silver, sold, teal, watercolor, watercolor stick
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