Three for a Girl
Posted on February 5th, 2016
Three for a Girl, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper
A third installment to one of my favorite series of last year, Three for a Girl continues the Counting Crows theme with another eerie tree and ghostly figure.
The titular girl is almost lost in the mists, fog drifting through and obscuring everything but the tree and its trio of visitors.
Three for a Girl, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see how the off-black paint granulates into beautifully textured mist, pigment pooling in the hollows of the watercolor paper. Below, the painting is waiting in a frame, a season and a mood in one small, eerie package.
Three for a Girl, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: bloodstone, counting crows, crow, nfs, sold, tree, watercolor
Purple Pathways
Posted on February 4th, 2016
Purple Pathways, 6″x4″ duochrome watercolor and interference watercolor on Arches cover black paper
Silvery blue becomes iridescent lavender, a trick of the light, a visual mirage. The black is an endless sky behind it, a void, a road not taken as the paint makes its own pathways and claims its space with sparkle and color.
It’s always hard to capture the qualities of metallic and duochrome paints with a still photo, but you can see two of the angles and imagine the rest, the changes that happen in daylight or lamplight, at this vantage or that.
It would fit perfectly on a desk or a bit of wall that you pass often, somewhere where it can catch the light, and your eye, and bring a smile to your face and some beauty to your day.
Purple Pathways, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the sunlight picking out a plethora of glittery colors against the velvety black paper. Below, the piece is in a frame, showcasing its small size.
Purple Pathways, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, duochrome, for sale, interference, pathways, watercolor
Bees 2
Posted on February 3rd, 2016
Bees 2, 7″x5″ pen & ink and ink wash on paper
More bees!
The rich amber ink is the same, but there’s smaller honeycomb and smaller bees. More and busier bees, buzzing about making honey or whatever it is that bees do when they’re not out getting pollen.
Bees 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the lovely texture of brush strokes, art paper, and ink wash all together in rich, honeyed detail. Below, the bees are in a frame, just as honeycomb should be!
Bees 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bees, for sale, ink wash, j herbin ink, pen and ink
Rainy City
Posted on February 2nd, 2016
Rainy City, 10″x8″ Japanese watercolor and iridescent watercolor on Arches cover black paper
This painting has been months in the making, from the first fall of rain to the test city bookmark to the painstaking buildings themselves. A dark, nighttime echo of the Jade City, more than one person has described the cloud-shapes above as looming figures.
Intricately detailed buildings of jade seem almost translucent beneath the color-shifting sky. The rainy grey becomes blue and violet at certain angles, adding to the mysterious, otherworldly feel.
Rainy City, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the wash of violet in the shining rain, above the gorgeous jade green city. Below, it’s been trapped in a frame like a view out an alien window, just waiting to grace your walls.
Rainy City, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: city, duochrome, iridescent, japanese watercolor, nfs, sold, watercolor
Oakland Cattown Cafe
Posted on January 28th, 2016
A friend from out of town (hi, Holly!) is visiting Oakland for a few weeks, which gave us the perfect excuse to visit somewhere I’ve been dying to go — the cat cafe! Oakland Cattown Cafe is associated with a shelter, so the money you pay to visit the cats is actually a tax-deductible donation to the shelter. Holly made our reservations online, so they were $10 each (it’s $5 if you drop in and they have space). There are a limited number of humans allowed to bug the cats each hour, so reserving ahead was totally worth it.
Also, this is mostly a photo review, so, enjoy the cats.
The first thing that greeted us was cat macarons!
We both tried the Earl Grey and Ginger Yuzu and they were both good, but Earl Grey won for me. Thanks to US health codes, they can’t serve you while you’re in with the cats, but you can take in food, as long as you don’t share with the cats, and your drinks have a lid. We both got tea & macarons, reviewed the rules, sanitized our hands, and headed in.
Let sleeping cats lie!
Once we got inside, most of the kitties were settling down for an afternoon nap, so we found seats (there’s tons of places to sit) and enjoyed our treats. Someone was coming to adopt one of the kitties, so the employees were busy with that instead of greeting us, but they did happily greet everyone else on the way in. We got there right at the hour, so as to spend the whole hour with the kitties, and were alone for the first while (employees aside).
Cushions for humans and trays for treats arrayed around the cat hammocks
This guy had just gotten out of a week of medical confinement (hurt ankle), and went around yelling for his ‘brother’ and waking everyone up.
Reunited, they immediately begin acting like brothers
After a while the lighter one got tired of his brother’s loud antics, and started tackling him every time. Even kitties know when to say stfu.
Cat butt o’clock!
There is a whole panorama of really cool Oakland-themed cat furniture in there, including this awesome Tribune building. The other two clocks are different, but obviously this one was my fave.
The quiet room, after the orange one woke everyone up
There’s also a “quiet room” where only 2 humans at a time get to go bug the cats in their cozy cubbies. The orange one was in there yelling, so we petted a few heads before everyone settled back in to resume their naps. Some of the cats snuggled up 3 to a cubby, and some were really not interested in any other company but their own.
Chooooooocolate
Overall, it was a really great hour. We didn’t play with the cats ourselves a lot, but some other people came in and broke out the toys, and enough cats were awake from the caterwauling to be entertaining. There’s huge windows to let in the sunlight, and the room is spacious, clean, and full of cats. I definitely recommend a visit to Oakland Cattown Cafe if you get the chance!
As a bonus, we walked back toward BART and ran across this awesome place, a hot chocolate cafe. The not-too-sweet treats we got there were the perfect follow-up to lunch!
Categories: Words Words Words
Tags: review
January Patreon Sketches
Posted on January 26th, 2016
My wonderful supporters on Patreon get the option to request sketches at the $5 and $10 level (color!), and this month I got 4 requests.
Abandoned Book for Kim, who was feeling melancholy
Death Does Netflix & Chill, for Jeff, who wanted to see Death on holiday
Favorite Treats, for Blaine who wanted my favorite food (I cheated)
Exes and Ghosts, for Molly who asked for musical and got an earworm
PS – If you’ve been curious about my writing, the little G-rated “how they met” short Untrue Love is on sale this week — for free!
This story shows us Alex’s first case, when he was an insufferable little university student instead of an insufferable adult. He meets Agent Murielle Lapointe, with whom he’s still working years later in the novels, and they work together to catch a killer.
Categories: Completed Commissions, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of, Words Words Words, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: copic marker, kim, nfs, patreon, pen and ink, sketch, watercolor
Cthulhu Pickup Lines
Posted on January 21st, 2016
Cthulhu Pickup Lines, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker.
“You’re hotter than Cthugha…”
“Are you an Elder God? Because your looks are driving me insane…”
“Even with strange aeons, my love will never die…”
Perhaps Cthulhu is not cut out for pickup lines.
Buy the Valentine in my Etsy shop, and show someone you love them in the cheesiest, most tentacular way possible.
Cthulhu Valentine by Amy Crook on Etsy
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Card Design, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: copic marker, cthulhu, etsy, for sale, hp lovecraft, parody, pen and ink, valentine
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