Blog « Antemortem Arts | Art & Writing by Amy Crook

Birthday Flower

Posted on June 12th, 2010

Birthday Flower by Amy Crook

Birthday Flower by Amy Crook

I was going to a friend’s nice’s 18th birthday party, and in lieu of a gift I decided to hand-draw her birthday card. I picked this bright tropical hibiscus flower. I remember that I Googled something related to a trip she was taking and these flowers came up, and so I broke out my Copic markers and drew this for her. I’m not sure if she still has the original, but I’m pleased that I remembered to scan it before I gave it to her.

Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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Whorls and Turns

Posted on June 11th, 2010

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook, $499

For once, I thought I’d post something brightly colored for Friday. This is a great example of the way monoprint inks feel a lot like high-quality finger paints, and the playfulness that it gave to the process. Also an example of me not wearing gloves in the printing studio like I should have, but I won’t tell if you don’t.

When I really got into monoprinting, one of the things I did was make a number of small etching plates that I could use interchangeably along with the monoprints and special papers to create one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Here you can see three of those small plates, which were printed onto the page in a single run.

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

These small plates were about 1-1.5″ each, and could be inked a number of different ways to get different effects. You can see these three were all initially inked with a deep blue, and then the bottom one was wiped almost clean of blue and inked again with the red to give it the effect of blue veins in red rock. Once those plates had been run, the rest was done on a blank monoprinting plate, which would be printed right over the images that were already there. It’s interesting bit of approximation, since the image prints backwards onto the page.

This one-of-a-kind print is on thick watercolor paper suitable for framing, but not ready to hang by itself. I’m happy to matte or frame pieces before shipping for the cost of the materials.

Whorls and Turns, 12.5″x11″ etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $499 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Broken Rainbow

Posted on June 10th, 2010

Broken Rainbow by Amy Crook

Broken Rainbow by Amy Crook

I went through a phase many years ago of painting on glass — I even made friends with a stained glass artisan who would sell me their broken scraps, which I hauled around for many years before realizing I was pretty much over a painting base you can cut yourself with.

This piece uses both thinned acrylic paints and liquid food coloring to get the different color effects, each piece painted individually and then re-assembled from 3 broken sheets into one big panel. I took the photos by putting the piece on a light table so you can see the transparency of the colors. I’ve always meant to built a light box to house this so it can be displayed, but I’ve never had the tools and motivation at the same time.

Broken Rainbow, 15″x5″ acrylic paints and liquid food coloring on broken glass, not for sale.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Anima

Posted on June 9th, 2010

Anima, detail, by Amy Crook

Anima, 3″x3″ photo etching on 5″x5″ watercolor paper

This is another print, this time a photo etching that uses a photograph I took of the model I painted in tiger stripes. As far as I know he never did get the tattoo, but I really enjoyed having the stripey version of him to use for my art.

I printed these in an edition of 5, and I have 3 left, though one of them’s got some decorative fingerprints in the whitespace. I mixed up a rich velvety purple ink and printed onto a very soft, thick watercolor paper, and the result is an image that has a certain glow about it as the details fuzz into each other just a little. The shadows are thick but his hair still glows in a cascade of curls where the light hits it.

Anima by Amy Crook, 1/5

Anima by Amy Crook, 1/5

These prints are on thick, soft paper that will require a matte or frame to display.

Categories: Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces
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Fabeku Fatunmise – Cartoon!

Posted on June 8th, 2010

Fabeku Fatunmise by Amy Crook

Fabeku Fatunmise by Amy Crook

Fabeku Fatunmise is one of my favorite people on Twitter, he’s just full of good cheer and awesomeness. I’ve downloaded his non-sucky free stuff and really enjoyed it, so when he told me he wanted to be a cartoon, I was all over it! I even traded him part of his fee for another of his downloads, which I love as much as the first one.

Fabeku wanted a weeble, and he asked for his prop to be one of his drums, which he sent me a photo of for reference. A link to the Ramones t-shirt and the shoes, and we were in business. I sketched him up, and after a few changes I inked and we talked about colors (for the record, he’s “pinky medium white guy” colored), and then, result!

I have absolutely no idea how the ninja got in there, though.

Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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Dancing Wood Sprites

Posted on June 6th, 2010

Dancing Wood Sprites by Amy Crook

Dancing Wood Sprites by Amy Crook

Echoing back to my very first daily art post, I sketched up some little dancing wood sprites in my next-to-the-bed notebook. I’m going to end up putting some of these guys in a painting or two soon, so I wanted to get a little more practice in with their long, slender limbs and angular features. I imagine these two are just a part of a big circle of dancing fae celebrating the turning of the seasons or some such.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange
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Commission: Snape & Harry

Posted on June 5th, 2010

Snape and Harry by Amy Crook

Snape and Harry by Amy Crook

My good friend Delta commissioned this in lieu of a cartoon during my art sale last month. She asked for a quiet moment of reconciliation between her two favorite wizards, a bit of fan art to add to her collection. I had fun with it; though Harry’s coy over-the-shoulder glance came out a bit awkward, I like to think it adds to the overall feel of the piece. After all, nothing ever goes quite smoothly between these two in the books, either.

Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of
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