Curiosity
Posted on May 5th, 2011
Curiosity by Amy Crook
My scanner can really take the sparkle out of anything, I think. This piece in real life is pure play — bright, cheery cyan with clusters of sparkling salt crystals, and even a single shining confetti star in the center of the “o” in curiosity.
I was experimenting once again with the various materials, salt and water, ink and paint, and by drawing my spirals in the still-wet paint I created these fascinating shapes. Then I put salt in the spirals and dripped more water over them, and it spread and pooled and dried in a glittering pattern. When it had dried, I thought the piece needed something, so I added the criss-cross stitching down the righthand side, and the word “curiosity” that seemed to fit so well with how the piece came to life.
Curiosity, 5″x7″ watercolor, salt, pen & ink and confetti star on watercolor paper.
You can get a better idea of the way the salt crystals look with this shot I took before it got its final touches:
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: blue, for sale, pen and ink, salt, spirals, watercolor
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Son of Weeble
Posted on May 4th, 2011
Son of Weeble by Amy Crook
I admit it, I ran out of finished weeble cartoons for my Wednesdays and had to just doodle something up. I started out just drawing up a “blank” weeble – shape of the head and body, arms and hands and feet. The idea of doing a blank-faced one then made me think of Magritte’s Son of Man, and thus I give you Son of Weeble to weird up your Wednesday.
I gave myself the rule of only using pens within reach to shade him, which is why his clothes are a light grey and his skin left paper white. Maybe next time I’ll bring out the Really Useful Box o’ Sharpies before I get started, I’m pretty sure I have a better range of pinks and browns there.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: doodle, magritte, nfs, weeble
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Lovecrafty
Posted on May 3rd, 2011
Lovecrafty by Amy Crook
While some pieces come together with effortless synchronicity, others are a struggle from start to finish. This piece was definitely one of the latter, but I’m finally happy with the end result. There’s just something that really amuses me in the way it seems like a cross between Lovecraftian horror and a 12-year-old girl’s diary.
The grey writing is done with a brush pen usually used for shading, the barely-legible words are a couple of especially creepy quotes from HP Lovecraft’s fiction. Blank spaces on the left were filled in with single words or shorter phrases, giving the whole thing a sense of mad, frantic writing, the deranged mind getting out what it’s seen. Or, possibly more insanity-inducing, the inner feelings of a pre-teen.
The images themselves are layered, everything from printer ink to sharpie marker, watercolor to pen and ink. I used water to blur things left and right and there’s even a tiny bit of salt texture, though it doesn’t take very well on this type of paper. I considered adding some tentacle monster green into the mix to dull down the overall cheeriness of the palette, but in the end I couldn’t resist the juxtaposition of color and intent.
Lovecrafty, 5″x7″ pen & ink, watercolor, Sharpie marker and salt on paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, quote, salt, sharpie, watercolor
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Moleskine Cahier: Limned
Posted on May 2nd, 2011
Limned, customized Moleskine Cahier journal by Amy Crook
I’ve had a little pile of these Moleskine Cahier journals sitting with my drawing supplies for weeks now, but haven’t been really inspired for what to do with them. I took one to bed with me to ponder one night when I was too wound up to sleep but tired of my usual workspaces, and after a while this idea came to mind. It’s very similar in form to another piece, Growth, but in this case the form itself is a negative space limned by a cluster of silver dots, rather than the painted circle in the first piece.
Limned, 3.5″x5.5″ silver Sharpie on Moleskine Cahier journal, $23 with free shipping.
Cahier Journals sport a heavy-duty black cardboard cover, with visible thread stitching on the spine. Inside each journal you’ll find acid-free paper pages and a spacious pocket for notes or clippings. Size: 3.5 x 5.5 in. (9 x 14 cm), 64 plain pages each, last 16 sheets detachable.
Because of the simplicity of the art on the front, I chose to sign & date this one on the back instead.
Limned, customized Moleskine, back, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Moleskines, Series and Books
Tags: black, for sale, moleskine, sharpie, silver
The 11th Doctor
Posted on April 30th, 2011
The 11th Doctor by Amy Crook
After all the time I’ve spent drawing cartoon Sherlock and Watson, I decided to go ahead and do Moffat’s other cheekbone-powered character, Doctor Who. The 11th Doctor was similar enough to Sherlock in features to give me a good starting point, but different enough to make it fun.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: doctor who, nfs, pencil, sketch
2 Comments »
Zen Comma
Posted on April 29th, 2011
Zen Comma by Amy Crook
I painted the central “zen circle” swish of this piece and then let it sit for a while. It looked so much like a comma, and the blue-black watercolor was so stark against the white, it really needed some words to go with it. I debated on a quote, on writing something myself, on printing or handwriting, and eventually came up with this. It’s one of my favourite quotes from a book, the end of a longer piece about the way we integrate pain into our views of the world.
Zen Comma, 6″x4″ watercolor, brush pen and ink on watercolor postcard, $99 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: brush pen, don h debrandt, for sale, pen and ink, watercolor, zen circle
2 Comments »
Water Lilies 1
Posted on April 28th, 2011
Water Lilies 1, watercolor by Amy Crook
This whole piece was an experiment, but I’m really happy with the results. The electric blue ink of the pen I used originally dissolved completely in the drops of water that beaded up on the paper, and the rocks of salt I put in the center of each little spiral did as well. Then the water took a full day to dry, the salt crystallizing back out onto the paper to form the three-dimensional baby blue “flowers.” I went in afterward and painted in the lily pads around each flower, letting the paint smudge and dissolve a bit of the salt, giving the whole thing an impressionist, watery feeling.
I liked it so much I’ve framed it to put on my bookshelf, and started another, similar piece with more color.
Water Lilies 1, 7″x5″ pen & ink, watercolor, and salt on watercolor paper.
Water Lilies 1, progress 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can see the water beaded up, the blue ink swirling up into the drops, and the salt crystal hiding in the middle of each. Below, the result a day later, when the water had completely evaporated, leaving salt and ink in a new configuration.
Water Lilies 1, progress 2, by Amy Crook
Water Lilies 1, progress 3, by Amy Crook
Above you can see how the paper is gently warped, and the salt crystals rise up above it in robin’s egg blue and rich, watery green. Below, a shot of the piece in its frame, all ready to be hung on the wall, put on a bookshelf, or to decorate your desk.
Water Lilies 1, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: blue, for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
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