Growth
Posted on March 18th, 2011
Growth by Amy Crook
I finished this little piece and then had to let it sit overnight to think of what to call it. The central circle initially put me in mind of a moon, or a planet, or possibly a pirate’s black spot when it was all by itself, a dark blue-black shadow of painted ink that dried to a gorgeous matte finish.
Then I came in days later and decided to add the little clusters of circles around it in black fountain pen, knowing that the ink would blur and spread as I made the little circles, adding texture and shadow. As I built up the outside texture, it reminded me of a decorative border, or a cluster of marine eggs, or possibly a layer of industrial growth around a planet, building up and sending off pieces out into the space around it. Or perhaps floating down from the white to aggregate, giving life to the lifeless rock in the middle.
Growth, 5″x5″ pen & ink and Japanese watercolor on watercolor paper.
Growth, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the tiny little circles that make up the pattern of growth, pushing off and away from the central mass. Below, you can see it in a narrow-edged frame with its brand-new sibling, and my iPhone for scale.
Growth 2 and Growth, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black, brush and ink, for sale, growth, pen and ink, planet, studio gallery, watercolor
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Weeble Wednesday: Michael Beckwith
Posted on March 16th, 2011
Michael Beckwith cartoon by Amy Crook
I’m back to cartooning! I’ve finally gotten the marker refills I was waiting on, and so the first of the new weebles is my code monkey. Michael Beckwith does a lot of the programming for my client sites (and this one, too!), learning all the ins and outs of WordPress development so I don’t have to.
When he asked to be a cartoon, I couldn’t resist adding a few extras — he wanted the piratical wooden leg and crutch for his props, so I also gave him the little pirate hat, and added the monkey on his t-shirt. He doesn’t actually have a wooden leg that I know of, but he’s definitely on the Pirate side of the war against the Ninjas, so that’s good enough for me.
Click here to find out how you can be a cartoon, too.
“Becoming a cartoon was surprisingly painless. A few questions, a picture,
and some patience, and soon enough I was a whole new man. Or, well, cartoon.”
-Michael Beckwith
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: cartoon, code monkey, copic marker, pen and ink, weeble
2 Comments »
Tentacle Deeps 5
Posted on March 15th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 5 by Amy Crook
And then there were five! I’m not sure how this morphed into such a big series, but I’ve enjoyed playing with the variations on a theme.
I did this one the same day I inked all the tiny details in my Gorey-esque illustration from Monday’s post, and I used the same tiny, long lines in the background here as in the background of John’s wallpaper. In this piece, the original wash was a very soft red-to-orange fade, so I chose my vivid orange fountain pen to carefully draw in the texture in the background. The pen is nearly the same color as the border of pooled watercolor around the top edge, so it really meshed well with the paint and brought the whole piece together.
I think this might be my favorite of the series so far.
Tentacle Deeps 5, 5″x5″ pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
Tentacle Deeps 5, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: nfs, orange, pen and ink, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Los Muertos 1
Posted on March 14th, 2011
Los Muertos 1 by Amy Crook
This piece was born out of pure play. I first brushed in a spiral in watery black ink, and then I watered the ink down even further to make lighter and lighter greys to play with. I also added in a tiny bit of color here and there, which is almost completely obscured by the later crosshatching. Then I used a green fountain pen to crosshatch around the main shape, starting while the paper was wet and letting it dry as I worked, so some of the lines are more blurred than others.
Then I wet down the central area all over again and used a black pen to ink there, and when I was done, the whole thing reminded me of one of those elaborately decorated Day of the Dead skulls. I got my dark red fountain pen (which the scanner decided was rather more magenta than the real thing) and drew spiral eyes, and then signed the piece using that red as well.
The end effect is rather creepy, but as I’m fond of creepy, that works out well.
Los Muertos 1, 5″x7″ pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: crosshatching, for sale, pen and ink, skull, watercolor
Seascape
Posted on March 12th, 2011
Seascape by Amy Crook
This painting has an interesting history. I first painted it many years ago at the urging of an internet friend, and had originally intended to put a mermaid on the rough stones. I wanted to show the waves splashing up against the rocks and give a real impression of spray catching the moonlight, cool and refreshing with just a hint of mystery. Once it dried, I found I liked it just the way it was, and even the friend agreed that it was better like this — though I did do some photoshopping to add in her mermaid for a desktop background.
Cue the passage of many years hanging on my walls in the sun, and we have some distressing fading. I know which color is to blame now, but back in the day I loved the shade so much I didn’t worry enough about lightfastness. Oops!
I finally took the time and effort to use a more lightfast color to repair the sea and sky. You can see below a shot where the upper left has been fixed, and the lower right is waiting for its new infusion of color.
The shot above was taken before it had a chance to dry, so there’s a little glare, but the rich midnight blue sky has been renewed, and it’s ready to be re-hung.
Seascape, 18″x24″, oil on canvas.
Categories: Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, for sale, moon, oil painting, sea
WIP: Tunnel in the Light
Posted on March 11th, 2011
Work in Progress by Amy Crook
After making In and In and In, I wanted to try out the opposite sort of impression, of descending from light into a dark tunnel or well. I had some iridescent paints out while I was working on a commission, so after that got to a stopping point, I worked up this little canvas. I’ve still got a bit more I want to do with it, so it’s a work in progress – it doesn’t even really have a name yet.
Categories: Daily Art, Works In Progress
Tags: oil painting, tiny painting, wip
Tentacle Deeps 4
Posted on March 10th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 4 by Amy Crook
Yet another installment of tentacles, this one exploring a couple of different techniques than the previous three.
I got the paper itself damp this time before doing the greyish wash, and then dripped in a bit of colour here and there to add dimension to the grey. Then I washed again over the whole paper, which muted the bright white borders and caused some but not all of the wash to bleed around the body of the image. Since the paper’s recycled, there’s also a bit of colour bleed-through from the inkjet printing on the back, which is covered by the darkest part of the wash but still adds some depth.
Then, once it was dry, instead of painting in the tentacles, I got out a blue-black pen and used obsessive crosshatching to create them. It’s always interesting and rather haphazard to create shapes like this freehand out of texture, without the comfort of penciling things in first, so the tentacles seem a bit less graceful to me this time around, and there’s no second or third layer of faded background shapes. Instead, I used a dark red to highlight the red blotches in the wash, and then slipped dark green spirals subtly into the tentacle shapes themselves — you can click on the image to see it bigger, which lets you really see all the details.
Tentacle Deeps 4, 5″x7″ ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
I also made another computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper for this one — please let me know if you download them.
Tentacle Deeps 4, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, grey, pen and ink, spirals, tentacle deeps, watercolor
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