Pond
Posted on November 4th, 2011
Pond by Amy Crook, $323
I decided that I wanted to go back to the original visual image that came to me with the salt pools and depict them in blue-green ink, with ripples going out, fading as they go from each pool. I imagine these like the frozen moment after the drop has hit, the ring of bigger crystasl around the edge like the splash, and each subsequent ring of paint a ripple growing fainter as it travels away from the center point. The whole piece has a very soothing, Zen-like quality to it that I quite enjoy.
Pond, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $323, framed, with free shipping.
The blue-green quality of this color is a bit hard to capture, the scanner wants to turn it blue and the camera wants to turn the white paper red, thus making the paint very green when the whites are corrected back.
Pond, detail, by Amy Crook
Of course, like all my three-dimensional salt paintings, it ships tucked safely into a simple frame.
Pond, framed, by Amy Crook, $323
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: aqua, for sale, pen and ink, salt, water, watercolor
New Leaf
Posted on November 3rd, 2011
New Leaf by Amy Crook
A lot of the time I resist the urge to make things pretty and decorative, so with this piece I let myself make smooth, lovely progressions of shapes and colors all I wanted. I was experimenting with salt on a new paper, which turned out to be a bit too absorbent to make formations, but still left sparkly pools of color. Then I got my awesome new Japanese gouache-like paints out (watercolors, but opaque!) and just noodled about with two shades of green and a series of shapes and patterns.
Although the scanner tends to shift it to yellow, the lighter parts of this painting are a vivid new-leaf green, and the whole thing has a lovely rough, hand-torn edge. I’m thinking of framing it with photo corners on black mat board to bring out the roughness around the edges of the otherwise smooth, decorative shapes.
New Leaf, 8″x8″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).
Even my camera didn’t really like the lighter green color, but here you can see just a touch of the salt sparkle nestling amongst the matte paint and finely textured paper.
New Leaf, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: decorative, gouache, green, nfs, pen and ink, salt, sold
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Crayon Duckies
Posted on November 2nd, 2011
Crayon Duckies by Amy Crook, commission
They’re not quite weebles, but every once in a while I get to do something so awesome for a client I can’t help but share. These were drawn with actual crayons for a client’s promotion involving dressed-up Halloween rubber duckies. Illustration clients ftw!
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: commission, crayon, nfs, rubber duckie
Tentacle Deeps 18
Posted on November 1st, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 18 by Amy Crook
More tentacles! I started this piece with salt that had already been gently used and had a coating of color on the outside, arranging them in a pattern that made me think of balloons floating up or perhaps fluff blowing off a dandelion. Once I got the idea to attach them to tentacles, however, I couldn’t resist! I used several shades of red and orange ink to create the tentacles, and of course my scanner hates red dyes and so a lot of the subtle gradation you can see in person is lost.
I decided to create the “deeps” part of the painting with simple crosshatching, electing to go with a fairly loose style which often ran into the tentacles, which makes them just a bit more unreal. I do wonder what the salt pools represent in this context, attached at the end of each vivid red tentacle. Egg sacs? Sensory organs? Lunch?
Tentacle Deeps 18, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 18, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black, crosshatching, for sale, pen and ink, red, salt, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Happy Halloween!
Posted on October 31st, 2011
Snape-o-Ween Costumes by Amy Crook
I drew this years ago for a Halloween card exchange. Each costume and caption filled one eighth of one of those paper fortune tellers of the sort I used as a kid. I had to Google how to fold one, it had been so long! Perhaps next year I’ll make a Cthulhu one. Or Harry Potter himself, just so Snape can enjoy sharing the misery.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: Harry Potter, I drew this, nfs, pen and ink, snape
Whimsicle Dragon sketch
Posted on October 29th, 2011
Whimsicle Dragon sketch by Amy Crook
Look out! Rawr!
This guy was totally inspired by the art in the credits of How to Train Your Dragon. He just wants some fish and a head-scratch, really!
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: dragon, nfs, pencil, sketch
Snape – Don’t Look Back Moleskine
Posted on October 28th, 2011
Snape - Don't Look Back customized Moleskine by Amy Crook
The winner of my $101 gift certificate chose a tiny painting for her prize, and with her leftover credit she got this customized Moleskine notebook. She wanted a Harry Potter parody of the famous Bob Dylan movie poster for Don’t Look Back, so I got out the Sharpies and got to work. I admit I have no idea what the movie’s about, but the concept seemed to fit poor Severus!
Snape Moleskine, back, by Amy Crook
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: commission, moleskine, nfs, sharpie
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