Blog « Antemortem Arts | Art & Writing by Amy Crook

At First Sight

Posted on April 9th, 2011

At First Sight by Amy Crook

At First Sight by Amy Crook

I went through a period where I was fascinated with the idea of the chakras, and I did several monoprints related to them. This one uses the colors are all of the lower chakras to make flame, and the symbols for the 2nd and 6th chakras, desire and the third eye.

Our culture has a whole myth of “love at first sight” that I’ve never really bought into — I think that what you get at first sight comes from somewhere else, though it might eventually be pulled upward into the realms of the heart. At first sight all you get is a visual, some social cues from dress and superficial action, and no idea of what the person is really like inside. This piece reflects that idea, that we expect to see into them with our third eye, when really we’re seeing with our sacral instincts, desire and wanting rather than the love that comes from accepting a person’s flaws as well as their really nice body.

At First Sight, 2″x6″ monoprint on 6.5″x9″ watercolor paper, $299 with free shipping.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books
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Cartoon Sherlock & John 2

Posted on April 8th, 2011

Cartoon Sherlock & John 2 by Amy Crook

Cartoon Sherlock & John 2 by Amy Crook

I couldn’t resist drawing up full-body color version of my Sherlock & John cartoons, though I’ve rather exaggerated their height difference here. Somehow it just seemed appropriate to make Sherlock a million miles tall and rail-thin compared to the more solid John Watson.

They’re supposed to start filming the new series next month, with new episodes coming out in the fall, and I’m absurdly excited. I’ve been slowly working my way through the original Holmes novels and short stories (in order, of course!), and I always enjoy spotting something from the show in the books, since the writers are both huge Sir Arthur Conan Doyle geeks. It makes me feel a little better about my own fannish obsessions.

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Burning Planet

Posted on April 7th, 2011

Burning Planet by Amy Crook

Burning Planet by Amy Crook, $169

A circle is such a simple form, and yet I feel like I could find an infinite variation in them. This one, too, looks the surface of a planet to me, or maybe some alien sun, the swirls of almost neon yellow marked by orange and red patterns.

This time I used my Windsor & Newton watercolors rather than the Japanese pigment inks, and it’s really interesting how the different media react differently to the addition of the salt. Rather than drying to a fine powder, each little spot of orange-red on the yellow paint is actually a salt crystal formed with the pigment-rich water as the salt on top dissolved, and then dried. If you look closely you can see the flat, squarish shapes of the salt crystals (click the image to enlarge). It even sparkles in the sunlight.

Burning Planet, 5″x5″ salt and watercolor on watercolor paper.

Here’s a terrible iPhone photo of the painting at an angle, so you can see the sun sparkling off the crystals:

Burning Planet, detail, by Amy Crook

Burning Planet, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
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Weeble Wednesday: Bride of the Mummy

Posted on April 6th, 2011

Bride of the Mummy by Amy Crook

Bride of the Mummy by Amy Crook

This poor lady was stuck as inks for many weeks, waiting for me to get a refill on my colorless blender so I could properly fade the wear and tear on her bandages. I had fun making her as a counterpart to the Mummy, especially since I gave them opposite eyes freed of bandages.

She’s one of the bonus brides from my Monster Heart Coloring Book, of course, and I have just one illustration left to color before those are all done.

Bride of the Mummy, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper. $89 with free shipping.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Tentacle Planet

Posted on April 5th, 2011

Tentacle Planet by Amy Crook

Tentacle Planet by Amy Crook

I guess I’ve just had tentacles on the brain lately! The first day I was experimenting with salt, I painted up the central circle of opaque gouache, which ended up looking a bit like Mars to me when it dried. The salt makes the pigments powder on the page, and you can see a little smear of paint-dust in the upper left from where I brushed it away.

I wasn’t satisfied with just the one layer of paint, though, so I watered down the same pure pigment into a light wash and painted in the halo of tentacles, sprinkling salt carefully at the base of each one, which further affected the surface of the circle around the edges as well.

Tentacle Planet, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover white paper.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Tentacles
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WIP: Zombie Crayons

Posted on April 4th, 2011

Zombie Crayons work in progress by Amy Crook

Zombie Crayons work in progress by Amy Crook

I spent several hours this weekend making art and managed not to really finish anything suitable for posting, oops! Here’s a sketch for my upcoming Zombie Family Coloring Book, an idea of how zombie kids might play with crayons. Note that, like all good zombies, she’s drawing her favorite thing – brains!

Categories: Daily Art, Works In Progress, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Ogdred Weary

Posted on April 2nd, 2011

Ogdred Weary, detail, by Amy Crook

Ogdred Weary, detail, by Amy Crook

This print combines two printing techniques for a singular layered result. First the colors were painted onto a blank acrylic plate with monoprint inks and the  piece was run through the printing press. Then, a deep-bite etched intaglio plate was inked and the already-printed page was run through a second time, which left the textured black impression overlaying the color. It can be a very precise process, but I never was a very precise artist, so you can see that the two plates don’t quite align on the page, which accents the loose style of the print itself.

I only ever made one print like this one, but it’s one of my favorite images to have come out of my explorations with printmaking. I named it after an Edward Gorey pseudonym, because the image reminded me of some tentacled beast that might live in a pond in one of his delightfully morbid picture books. My favorite of his is The Gashlycrumb Tinies, because it opens with, “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs.”

Ogdred Weary, 3″x3″ etching and monoprint on 7″x10″ watercolor paper.

Ogdred Weary by Amy Crook

Ogdred Weary by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Tentacles
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