The Fool sketch
Posted on May 7th, 2011
The Fool sketch by Amy Crook
Ages ago, a friend of mine was getting his artist friends to draw/paint interpretations of the Fool tarot card. I painted a background on a little 3×5 piece of canvas board, and then forgot all about finishing it for one reason or another. The other day I pulled out the old background and was contemplating adding in a figure properly. When I decided to sketch it out, I was amused to find that what came to mind was the iPod-wearing, oblivious hipster you see above.
Categories: Daily Art
Tags: nfs, pencil, sketch
2 Comments »
Works in Progress – Tea Edition
Posted on May 6th, 2011
Tea Washes, works in progress by Amy Crook
In the spirit of exploration, and because it’s something I drink nearly every day, I decided to make up a very strong little cup of tea and experiment with using it as a wash. I used two different kinds of paper, and only added salt to one of the pieces, over-wetting the other two so they could air dry overnight into interesting patterns. Once I see how I like the effect, perhaps I’ll try a few more.
I’ve also left the tea, which you can see in its little dish on the right, to strengthen overnight so I can do a few more experiments.
Categories: Daily Art, Works In Progress
Tags: salt, tea, wip
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
2 Comments »
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
2 Comments »
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 »
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