Radiation Spill
Posted on May 27th, 2011
Radiation Spill by Amy Crook
I couldn’t resist a punny title for this piece, after everything that went into making it. I was working away on doing the darker pen-and-ink shading in the background of the tea circle with a quill dip-pen and bottle of ink when I smacked the bottle and dumped it onto the drawing, the table, and a bit on myself. Fortunately I salvaged all three — the tablecloth kept it off the carpet, my pyjamas are none the worse for being a bit inky, and the piece, as you can see, took on a different quality afterward.
I put some salt crystals in the ink pool just to see what happened, and then once it was all dry I finished with the parallel lines radiating out from the salt-encrusted portions of the tea circle. Then, I got a metallic gold colored pencil to put in radial lines coming out from the lighter pool of tea, half-erasing them to give a subtle, distressed feel. One of the things I really like about the quill-and-ink section is that the metal nib actually scratches into the paper, so you can still see the texture of the lines even in the big pool of ink.
I think the final effect is of something rising up over hills, the sun half-under a cloud perhaps, or some alien moon somewhere.
Radiation Spill, 5″x7″ mixed media on watercolor paper, $129 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: colored pencil, for sale, pen and ink, salt, tea
Tender Planet
Posted on May 26th, 2011
Tender Planet by Amy Crook
This piece of art was created with theoretically edible ingredients, except of course for the paper. Of course, the tea had been sitting in a dish on my shelf for two days when I made this, so I’m not sure I’d want to have drunk it at that point, but it’s the thought that counts.
I let the tea puddle and gather on the page, and once it started to dry, I moved the tea-soaked salt crystals off the pool in the middle and onto the white page around it. I added a tiny drop of extra tea to the each salt crystal to make a series of satellites around the central circle. The tea had managed to change from when it was fresh-brewed, and a sediment settled out in the denser parts giving it a rough look like a shadow on the surface of a moon or planet. The crystals were brushed gently off once the piece was completely dry, to leave this final image that suggested its name to me the moment I saw it completed.
I think this is my favorite so far of the tea experiments, actually, I love the organic feel of it, nature creating art with only a little bit of human intervention. The slightly larger page size gives the image room to float in the middle like a planet sending its child satellites out to explore space, but not too far just yet.
Tender Planet, 7″x7″ tea and salt on Arches cover white paper.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, planet, salt, tea
4 Comments »
Sketch Sale Revisited
Posted on May 25th, 2011
Sale done! Thank you to everyone who participated and made it a success.
After a week, I’ve sold a few sketches and, as is the way of things when there’s pens and paper out ready to be used, made a few more. The sale will go on for one more week, until the end of May. If you’d like to get your very own wee little sketch from me in the mail, there’s still a bit of time.
Here’s what I’ve been up to this week. Somehow, they all turned into cute fan art, go figure.
Two little $10 sketches:
Snape and Harry sketch by Amy Crook (sold)
Harry and Draco sketch by Amy Crook
Two little $20 sketches:
Bertie and Lionel, the King’s Speech, sketch by Amy Crook (sold)
Mycroft and Sherlock, brotherly love, sketch by Amy Crook
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Sale Post, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: draco, harry, kings speech, mycroft, pen and ink, sherlock, sketch sale, snape, watson
Red Irony
Posted on May 24th, 2011
Red Irony, front cover, by Amy Crook
I have a few of these little folded over pieces of thick, stiff watercolor paper just waiting for me to find something to do with them. This first one had its front painted weeks before the last of its inside panels got their decorations.
When you unfold the first panel of the little square, you get a different Zen circle and surprise tentacles:
Red Irony, detail, by Amy Crook
The inner circle is smaller and a little more broken, and the tentacles seem to be reaching for it, toward some mysterious end.
When you open it further you find that the tentacles are now reaching for a mysterious blue-black circle of paint, accompanied by an appropriate Lovecraft quote.
Red Irony, inside panels, by Amy Crook
From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent.
-H.P. Lovecraft
The starting F has been decorated with twining red tentacles, this panel done with pen and ink in matching shades of blue-black and blood red, rather than watercolor like the rest of the piece.
Red Irony, 10″x4.25″ watercolor and pen and ink on watercolor paper.
This piece is unframed, and really is more suited to standing snuggled up with old books where it can surprise the unwary, and hopefully make them smile at its odd message. The paper is quite stiff and the materials archival, so it should be able to withstand a bit of wear and tear, though I’d still keep it out of reach of little fingers.
For completion, here’s what the back of the piece looks like, though I may add a signature to the blank back panel before it gets slipped away into storage with the rest of my watercolor pieces.
Red Irony, outside panels, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: calligraphy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, red, tentacles, watercolor, zen circle
Work in Progress: Dragon Skin
Posted on May 23rd, 2011
Dragon, commission in progress, by Amy Crook
Just a little work in progress today, a teaser of the textured skin on Molly’s oil-painted dragon. It’s taken ages to get even this far, since I have to let the thick scales dry between painting sessions or I just smear them when I’m working elsewhere, and I still have his hoard, the details on the forest, and even his face to finish. Or is it a her, in the rich warm purples and blues? The paint I’m using is iridescent, which makes the whole dragon shine on the canvas, especially with the extra physical texture of the impasto.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Works In Progress
Tags: commission, iridescent, nfs, oil painting, wip
4 Comments »
Puppy Love
Posted on May 20th, 2011
Puppy Love by Amy Crook
This cute little guy is one of the tea experiments I posted last Friday. Rather than watercolor, I made the wash with strong black tea, and then enhanced it with a brown fountain pen and, you guessed it, more tea. The shape that the tea left when it dried suggested a puppy to me, so I played a little bit with the pen and brush and eventually got something I was happy with.
The end result is warm and whimsical, just the perfect thing for a dog lover.
Puppy Love, 7″x5″ pen & ink and tea on paper.
Categories: Daily Art, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: nfs, pen and ink, puppy, sold, tea, whimsy
Eye of the Moon
Posted on May 19th, 2011
Eye of the Moon by Amy Crook
The same day I did the tea washes, I did a few watercolor washes as well, just simple pale circles to do something with later. When I took this one back out the other night, it reminded me of an eye, but also of a pale, cool moon floating in its own gentle glow. The paper around the circle is a bit warped, giving it a touch of subtle halo, which you can just barely see in the image above.
I used the same crosshatch pattern as I did with Blood Moon, only this time I used a deep blue-black rather than the bright red. Instead of adding texture with a contrasting color of ink, I put an abstractly slitted pupil into the center of the white “eye” that gave the whole image an ornate feeling. The high contrast between background and foreground gives this piece much more deliberateness, and this thinner sketchbook paper also held the ink better, with less bleeding.
Eye of the Moon, 7″x5″ watercolor and pen & ink on paper.
I took a progress shot with my iPhone right after I started, so you can see the texture on the wash without the interference of the pattern.
Eye of the Moon, work in progress by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, crosshatching, eye, for sale, moon, pen and ink, watercolor
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