Blog « Antemortem Arts | Fine Art & Custom Paintings

Chickadee

Posted on September 15th, 2020

Chickadee, 6″x6″ watercolor on paper

I’ve finally managed to mail my Mom her Mother’s Day gift this year, belated of course because time is meaningless in 2020, so now you can all see what she got!

She loves paintings of birds, and so I decided to do something fun for me with this orb-shaped, fluffed-up little winter chickadee. It’s got a lot of very pale, subtle shades, from the winter blue sky to the cream underbelly, but my old scanner did its best.

This little borb is a bit cranky about something, perhaps the cold — it’s certainly puffed up enough to keep warm!

Categories: Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bird, borb, nfs, watercolor

September’s Floating Gallery is CLOSED!

Posted on September 9th, 2020

See you again soon!

The Floating Gallery has pulled up stakes and drifted off into the sunset!

I hope you enjoyed September’s temporary exhibits, and will be back another month for more. This month’s pieces have been sold or retired to make room for all new art. Join the email list to get an early pass into all the future Floating Galleries.

In the meantime, my Etsy shop is still open, and there will be comics and other, stranger posts here on the blog. You can also support me on Patreon if you want to make sketch requests, get downloads, get dibs on pieces as they’re finished, or just feel good about yourself as a patron of the arts!

Categories: Floating Gallery

Fascism is Bad

Posted on September 8th, 2020

Fascism is Bad, 6″x6″ ink and watercolor on paper

Some people have the energy to protest, some of us have to stick with protest art. If you told me at any point prior to 2016 that I’d be worried about literal nazis in 2020, I would have thought you were crazy. Just goes to show.

This piece uses several different brush pens and some bloodily patriotic watercolor to make its point.

Nazis ruin everything.

Fascism is Bad, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the spattered red and layered ink on the D in BAD. Below, the art’s in a frame that’s not quite right for it — it would be perfect in a larger frame, or one of the acrylic frameless displays.

Fascism is Bad, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Pretty Words, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: brush and ink, brush pen, for sale, watercolor, word art

Dreamlands 3

Posted on September 7th, 2020

Dreamlands 3, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper

Another piece that’s been in my Work in Progress pile for an embarrassingly long time, I took this city away from reality immediately and never brought it back.

From Mondrian to fungus, the buildings and their washed-out colors spring from a number of sources, including the usual Gherkin-inspired glass edifice.

I couldn’t tell you who or what lives here, perhaps somewhere close to Ulthar or well beyond the cursed plains of Leng. But you could probably tell your own stories about it, if you tried.

Dreamlands 3, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the play of dim color on the buildings and in the sky. Below, it’s been framed, like a peek through a looking glass into another world.

Dreamlands, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: brush and ink, city, dreamlands, for sale, horizon, watercolor

Old Haunts

Posted on September 5th, 2020

Old Haunts, 8″x4″ brush & ink and watercolor on paper

I’ve had the spooky, misty-dusk background of this piece sitting around my studio aka living room for ages, and finally one day I just pulled it out and put some trees on it. The light in the middle begged for its own something, and this loosely-constructed, half-overgrown haunted house grew out of that.

It’s possible your artist watches a few too many Halloween movies.

There’s a trio of trees, a handful of crows, and of course the spooky old house rising up out of the mist.

This piece has already sold, but there might still be something waiting just for you in September’s Floating Gallery!

Old Haunts, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see some spooky trees and spooky birds and the misty gloaming sky behind them both. Below, it’s on my shiny new table easel, waiting to haunt its new home.

Old Haunts by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: brush and ink, crow, haunted house, nfs, sold, tree, watercolor

Surrender

Posted on September 4th, 2020

Surrender, 6″x6″ watercolor on paper

I found this pose on the model’s tumblr, and it made me think of the Winter Soldier from the comics, who is shorter and more slender than the absolute unit from the MCU.

I wanted to experiment both with the figure drawing and some unusual color choices, using shades of blue and violet for the shadows as a contrast to the pinkish white boy skin tones.

Poor Bucky looks so vulnerable, with his little feet curled under and his hands behind his head, a deliberate contrast to the intimidating picture he makes in his full uniform and face mask, armed to the teeth and dangerous all day.

Surrender, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see how the blues and pinks and purples are layered rather than mixed to create shadow and highlight spaces in the figure. Below, he’s trapped in a frame, just waiting to find out what happens next.

Surrender, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: bucky barnes, figure painting, justanothertart, mcu, nfs, nude, sold, watercolor

GPS

Posted on September 3rd, 2020

GPS, 6″x4″ watercolor on black paper

If you’re not looking for murder, perhaps some direction will do.

This is a GPS satellite, painted for a calendar cover to represent both technology and direction needed in 2021. The sunrise is just glinting over the curve of the earth in the background, a reminder that the sun continues to rise, and the atmosphere that we breathe is the thinnest of layers between us and the void.

It’s painted in metallic and opaque watercolors on black paper, so the sky is an even, velvety charcoal studded with distant stars.

GPS, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the gold of dawn just starting to glint over the Earth’s horizon. Below, the whole of space is laid out in a frame, just waiting to go to its forever home.