Unreal Angel
Posted on February 26th, 2011
Unreal Angel by Amy Crook
I’ve had this painting for a while now, but I was never quite happy with certain details in it, so today when I was painting I pulled it out and mixed up a soft, warm gold and brought the too-subtle wings into fuller being. They’re still translucent and only half-realized at best, but much easier to see.
Unreal Angel, 12″x16″ pastel and oil paint on canvas board.
I also added a sort of secret detail; I got out my duochrome aquamarine and gave him a gently-blended halo that you can only see from some angles — in photos, it only showed up with the flash on.
Categories: Floating Gallery
Tags: angel, canvas board, for sale, oil painting, pastel
Victorian Wallpaper
Posted on February 25th, 2011
Victorian Wallpaper 1 by Amy Crook
After doing my hatboxes for the window display, and reading way too much Edward Gorey and Arthur Conan Doyle, I’ve been itching to try my hand at a Victorian-style wallpaper pattern. This is my first attempt, a little wonky but I like the way my scribbled inks work with the ornate scrollwork. Below I’ve done a few mock-ups of what it might look like in different color patterns. Read the rest of this entry »
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: pen and ink, wallpaper
1 Comment »
S is for Sherlock
Posted on February 24th, 2011
S is for Sherlock by Amy Crook
Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies is my absolute favourite of works — I get to die first, after all — and so when I was experimenting with my Micron pens the urge to parody BBC’s new Sherlock by mashing up the two was irresistible.
Click the image if you’d like to really see the ridiculously obsessive line work, or just enjoy the smaller version where it all blends into a texture.
I decided to combine the pose from “S is for Susan who perished of fits” and the caption and setting from “N is for Neville who died of ennui” in order to capture the essence of modern Sherlock in his state of utter boredom. The window isn’t precisely true to the show (there’s an ornate railing of some kind outside, and curtains), but I really liked the boring brickwork from the N page, so I copied that faithfully and tediously.
I never really thought I’d learn to like shading in such a time-consuming style, but I’m already thinking about other ways I can make use of it. I’ve already got plans to do a companion piece to this for poor John, since Gorey set me up so very well with “J is for James who took lye by mistake.”
S is for Sherlock who died of ennui, 8.5″x6.5″ pen and ink on sketchbook paper, sold.
You can still get the pair of them as handmade blank greeting cards on Etsy, though!
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: baker street tinies, crosshatching, edward gorey, nfs, pastiche, pen and ink, sherlock, sold
3 Comments »
Blue Fish
Posted on February 23rd, 2011
Blue Fish by Amy Crook
It’s not properly a weeble despite it being Wednesday, but this sad little fishy has the same cartoonish, playful tone, I think.
I decided to experiment a little with a medium I acquired some time ago and have never quite made peace with, watercolor crayons. I’m not sure if it’s the quality of the sets I’ve got or just the medium itself, but I’m never quite happy with the childlike texture that clings to the page even when I go in after and activate them with water.
This fish wanted to be blue in honor of Dr. Seuss, so perhaps a cheery red fish will make it up sometime next week.
Blue Fish, 7″x5″ watercolor crayons on watercolor paper, not for sale.
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals
Tags: blue, fish, nfs, watercolor crayons
Tentacle Deeps 2
Posted on February 22nd, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 2 by Amy Crook
Apparently, this is a series! Who knew?
I had another blue wash sitting around from my last foray at watercolors, and this one, too, seemed to just really want tentacles.I mixed a little green into the black again, but once again it seems to have been swallowed up as the paint dried, though I saw glimmers of it when it was wet.
I used a bigger brush on a smaller piece this time and I’m not sure I liked the coarser control, so of course I’ll have to try again. Perhaps green, or something in a rich blood red?
Tentacle Deeps 2, 4″x6″ watercolor on watercolor postcard.
I didn’t bother with wallpapers on this one, but if you’d like them, just let me know.
Tentacle Deeps 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, tentacle deeps, watercolor
1 Comment »
Clusters and Swirls
Posted on February 21st, 2011
Clusters and Swirls, 6.5″x4.25″ watercolor on handmade postcard
I’ve been experimenting a lot with my watercolors this weekend, and I think this is the most successful of the oddities I finished. I loved the warm orange-gold, dotted with little hints of rose, even before I got out the reds and started playing around with the idea of clusters and filaments again. I tried not to be too precious about things, just painting whatever came to mind, making patterns and then breaking them. When I was done there was still something missing, so I took a different shade of red and put in the swirls, and that really brought the whole piece together for me.
I tend to like working with pure pigments more than mixing sometimes, though I’m trying to move myself away from that tendency. The background was definitely a mix of different colors blended wet-in-wet on the paper, but all the foreground details were done with two pure Japanese inks, one in a deep bloody red and the other in a bright fire-engine red.
One cool thing about getting more serious about making art every single day is that I’m using up a ton of art supplies I’ve hoarded over the years. I’ve probably had these handmade postcards from India for over a decade, they’re thick and stiff like cardstock with an interesting and uneven texture that varies between watercolor paper and canvas.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, postcard, watercolor
Three
Posted on February 18th, 2011
Three by Amy Crook
This piece I actually painted upside-down, wasn’t thrilled with it, and then as soon as I flipped it over to get the background wash finished up I was suddenly oddly pleased. I can’t really explain what I like about it, but I really do like it.
It’s another piece that’s mostly ink & watercolor experiments, but I think the result has a nice graphical feel to it. I have the urge to frame this piece a specific way with the postcard floated on a black mat, perhaps one day I’ll make the effort. I have one other postcard framed that way, and I think this one would benefit from that.
Three, 6.5″x4″ watercolor on handmade postcard, $99 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, swooshy, watercolor
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