Squamous Turtle
Posted on September 23rd, 2011
Squamous Turtle by Amy Crook
I made this little guy in a very similar manner to the Opera Squid, except I mixed rich quinacridone gold with the grey-green zoisite genuine for his palette. He gets his name from one of Lovecraft’s favorite adjectives, which means scaly, and from the texture created when the granular zoisite settles out of the mix, leaving the quinacridone to stain the paper gold.
Squamous Turtle, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper, nfs (sold).
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals
Tags: nfs, sold, turtle, watercolor, zoisite
Weeble Pumpkinhead
Posted on September 21st, 2011
Weeble Pumpkinhead by Amy Crook
Just a little something spooky to celebrate the coming of autumn! I was in a Halloweeny mood, so I drew this guy up in an afternoon and colored him in the evening, once the day cooled off. We’re having an end-of-summer heat wave here in the bay area, and it’s slowing me way down, so I cheered myself up with a bit of spooky goodness.
Weeble Pumpkinhead, 5.5″x8.5″ pen & ink and Copic markers on sketchbook paper, not for sale.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: halloween, nfs, pumpkin, spooky, weeble
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Tentacle Deeps 15
Posted on September 20th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 15 by Amy Crook
Days of work went into today’s piece, but I think they’re my favorite tentacles yet. I used the same technique of softening pen-and-ink with water as in Tentacle Deeps 14, but then I went through and grew salt crystals along the body of each tentacle. The cross-hatching used three different pens to create the sense of light and depth, and my friend Eric L suggested that it looks like the tentacles are starting to dissolve where the light is hitting them.
Tentacle Deeps 15, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper.
Here you can see a closer view of the texture and the way I created the effect of light fading to darkness.
Tentacle Deeps 15, detail 1, by Amy Crook
I love how this shows off the variation in the tentacle colors, and the way the salt crystals sparkle even with the dark ink suffusing them.
Tentacle Deeps 15, detail 2, by Amy Crook
I finally had the brilliant idea of putting something in the framed shots so you’d get a sense of scale, so enjoy this shot of the tentacles in their frame, hanging out with my iPhone.
Tentacle Deeps 15, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: brush and ink, crosshatching, for sale, orange, pen and ink, red, salt, tentacle deeps
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Violet Midnight 2
Posted on September 19th, 2011
Violet Midnight 2 by Amy Crook
I’ve been thinking about making prints lately, and that’s led me to think about the way that the salt paintings are really unprintable — while a print of a normal piece is maybe half as cool as the real piece, but printing the salt pieces loses 90% of their awesomeness. So, with that in mind, I mixed up a slightly different mix of the violet-black from Violet Midnight and made a piece that only used the salt for visual texture rather than physical structure. There’s no shiny paint, no sparkly salt, just simple ink and watercolor.
I actually started it the same way I do any salt piece, with spirals in ink on paper, but this time I went straight to painting the background (which has little salt-made stars, done the traditional way by scattering salt onto the damp paint), then used plain water to pick up the ink and create halos of golden orange around the sun and larger stars.
Violet Midnight 2, 7″x5″ watercolor, pen and ink on paper.
Here’s how it looks in a frame, with my iPhone for scale:
Violet Midnight 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, moon, orange, pen and ink, salt, spirals, violet, watercolor
1 Comment »
Opera Squid
Posted on September 17th, 2011
Opera Squid by Amy Crook
This little guy is made of another delightful real-mineral paint, zoisite, mixed with the eye-searingly vivid opera pink from the same company. The grains of the mineral paint separate from the finer, more staining pink in some places, which gives this cheery little squid a lovely duotone texture. The grey-green of the zoisite becomes a warm neutral when mixed with the pink, ranging from an almost violet grey to a brackish brown.
I had fun with this quick brush sketch, using the quality of the paints themselves to create texture, shape and value. Plus, you know how I do love to paint tentacles.
Opera Squid, 5″x7″ watercolor on paper.
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
Tags: nfs, sketch, sold, squid, tentacles, watercolor
1 Comment »
Modern Snow
Posted on September 16th, 2011
Modern Snow by Amy Crook, $555
It’s always fascinating to me how the different colors of ink react to the salt — some of them don’t actually spread into the halo of crystal formations, but this one took its rich blue color all the way to the tips, leaving the darker, more violet-toned ink behind in the central circle. This piece combines the blue snowflake-like salt formations from Snowflakes with the fascinating brushwork from Aglow 2 to get an entirely new effect that reminds me of a pattern from the ’50s or ’60s.
Modern Snow, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $555, framed, with free shipping.
Like all the paintings I made using the lunar black, this one’s got the gorgeous contrast between the velvety dark areas and the sparkling salt crystals.
Modern Snow, detail, by Amy Crook
A simple frame will keep your art safe from damage, even those strange sideways crystals that grow at odd angles out of the paper.
Modern Snow, framed, by Amy Crook, $555
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, for sale, pen and ink, salt, snow, snowflake, watercolor
Aglow 2
Posted on September 15th, 2011
Aglow 2 by Amy Crook, $499
I just couldn’t resist revisiting the delicate colors and shapes I got using the orange ink pen with this paper and my salt techniques. I combined a constellation-like cluster of salt rosettes with the rich texture and deep, velvety color of the lunar black watercolor to create a companion piece to the original Aglow. This paper has such a soft texture of its own that the watercolor paint tends to sink in, giving the background a more muted feel and making the textures more subtle.
Aglow 2, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $499, framed, with free shipping.
The surprise this time is the delicate intersection of brush strokes in the lower right, which created an effect I liked so much you’ll see it repeated over again in tomorrow’s piece.
Aglow 2, detail 1, by Amy Crook
I also love the way this delicate little line of three salt pools looks like Orion’s belt, or perhaps just a trio of fireflies dancing in the deepening night.
Aglow 2, detail 2, by Amy Crook
A thin black frame protects the piece and offsets the subtle gradations in the paint.
Aglow 2, framed, by Amy Crook, $499
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: fireflies, for sale, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
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