Starship Craftybiz 01A
Posted on June 6th, 2011
Starship Craftybiz 01A by Amy Crook (commission)
I couldn’t help but be excited when Tara Swiger, one of my favorite smart people on the internet, asked me to help draw up a starship to help represent her awesome new thing. We talked a little bit about what she was going for, and since she wanted to use it for a bunch of smallish stuff on the internet (like the button below), we decided to go for a combination of coloring book and technical drawing — not too much detail, but with a definite “drawing board” feeling that works with her program.
I got an Early Boarding Pass to the Craftybiz Starship Adventure because I’d taken a lot of her classes and found them really helpful to me, as I’ve begun to build my own business (and especially my Etsy shop). She concentrates on things like figuring out your pricing, where and what to sell, and who to sell it to (hint: it’s people who want your unique thing and have money for it), and leaves the technical business details for others. And yes, all these snazzy links are affiliate links, which means I get a percentage, but I’d give her a glowing review anyway — Tara’s just that cool.
Also, she was an amazing client to work with, clear on what she wanted and good at conveying it, and enthusiastic over the results. A win for everyone!
“Working with Amy was so much easier than I could have hoped for. I was nervous, because this she’s the first illustrator I’ve ever hired. But the process was simple, her illustration was spot on what I had requested, and she made me feel comfortable through the entire thing. Oh, and it was speedy! I had a short window and Amy didn’t leave me waiting.
“Thanks Amy, for making this adventure full of ease and downright fun, I’ll definitely be back for more!”
-Tara Swiger
Here’s the most excellent button she made out of her starship (see how well it shrunk?), and yes, yet another affiliate link:
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art
Tags: all rights reserved, commission, nfs, pen and ink, pencil, starship, tara swiger
6 Comments »
Whiteboard Gremlin
Posted on June 4th, 2011
Gremlin whiteboard sketch by Amy Crook
A proper sketch Saturday at long last! I was sleepy and contemplating a cartoon I’m doing for a certain Delightineer, and so I doodled this happy guy on my whiteboard while I was making the next day’s to-do list.
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: nfs, whiteboard
Green Salt Pools
Posted on June 3rd, 2011
Green Salt Pools by Amy Crook
This time I used small chips of salt inside tiny, tight spirals of bright green pen, and put a scant drop of water atop each one. I got small, dense pools of dried salt, almost all of which had a central crystal as well as the border of salt that always forms. This pen came out a pale, yellow-green when it was diluted into the salt, and just like the blue and gold earlier this week, the ink dissolved into the solution completely.
The green in the background is dark and bluish, but the rings around each little salt formation are a brighter green, from the dark shadowy forest to the rich green of leaves overhead to the bright new-leaf green of the salt growth.
Green Salt Pools, 7″x5″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper, $299 framed, with free shipping.
This picture gives you a better feel for the color and texture of the piece:
Green Salt Pools, detail, by Amy Crook
And here you can see it tucked safe in its frame:
Green Salt Pools, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
4 Comments »
Blue Salt Pools
Posted on June 2nd, 2011
Blue Salt Pools by Amy Crook
I’ve been experimenting more with these salt pieces,using different inks to make the original drawings, more or less salt or water to make the pools, and different patterns and colors of watercolor along with them (and even one with no watercolor at all). This one uses a watered-down midnight blue to go with the lighter blue salt pools, and you can see one where the ink really permeated the salt and gave it almost an electric blue feel. Overall I really like the way this one came out, with the color gathering the darkest where the paint brushed along the outer edges of the salt crystals.
Blue Salt Pools, 7″x5″ salt and watercolor on watercolor paper, $299 framed, with free shipping.
I always feel like the scans, while technically accurate, don’t really capture the sparkly, dynamic, three-dimensional feel of these pieces. The salt grows onto the paper, crystallizing with the color from the ink to create these textured alien landscapes, and no photo or scan can ever quite convey that.
Blue Salt Pools, detail, by Amy Crook
It will ship tucked safely in its frame, so you don’t have to worry about anything untoward happening to it in transit.
Blue Salt Pools, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: blue, for sale, salt, watercolor
3 Comments »
Thanks for the Sketches!
Posted on June 1st, 2011
My little sketch sale was a success – I had a lot of fun doing a bunch of quickie art pieces, and I still have two left to go. I even sold most of the sample pieces I did, so I’m quite pleased overall. If you missed it, there’ll likely be a repeat again around the holidays. I’ve been told they make lovely gifts.
Snape sketch by Amy Crook (sold)
Sphinx sketch by Amy Crook (sold)
King's Speech sketch by Amy Crook (sold)
Thanks again to everyone who participated, whether by looking, buying, Tweeting or replying!
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: commissions, kings speech, nfs, sketch sale, snape
Tentacle Deeps 13
Posted on May 31st, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 13 by Amy Crook
And so we come to the end of a series! 13 Tentacle Deeps seemed like enough, a good stopping point before I got bored with the idea altogether. I’ve really enjoyed having the structure there to experiment with materials, watercolor and salt, pen and ink, different papers and techniques.
This last installment in the series started with a very dark wash of mixed black and green and a little blue, which settled out at the bottom in an interesting root-like formation when it dried. I chose to grow the tentacles out of the top of the roots rather than cover them up, and then added simple table salt to give a little bit of sparkle and texture to the image. The paper is one of the handmade postcards I bought ages ago, rough and off-white and not really a proper rectangle, which gives the piece a wonderful texture.
Tentacle Deeps 13, 4″x6″ watercolor and salt.
I’ve also made an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper out of this one to celebrate the end of the series. Enjoy!
Tentacle Deeps 13, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, green, salt, teal, tentacle deeps, watercolor
1 Comment »
Golden Pools
Posted on May 30th, 2011
Golden Pools by Amy Crook
When I started this piece, I’m sure I had intentions of doing something else once the water dried and salt spots formed, but the end result was so serene, I decided to keep it as is. It’s so subtle that my scanner did a terrible job with it, actually, so I had to take a photograph instead.
Golden Pools, 5.5″x4.25″ pen, ink and salt on card.
This is what it looked like early on, when the salt had mostly dissolved but the water hadn’t pulled all of the ink out of the paper yet, so you can still see the orangey-gold spirals faintly inside each drop:
Golden Pools, in progress, by Amy Crook
You can see how the one droplet slipped up over the embossed edge of the card, even though I tried to keep it away. The resultant pool of golden salt stayed in the same spot, gently breaking the borders of the piece:
Golden Pools, detail, by Amy Crook
This last photo encompasses the feeling of the piece for me, the depth and detail that’s hiding in the minimalist presentation:
Golden Pools by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: ink, salt
1 Comment »
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