Archive for the ‘Completed Commissions’ Category
Diddy Wah Diddy Illustrations
Monday, September 30th, 2013
Diddy Wah Diddy by Corey Mesler, with interior illustrations by Amy Crook
This spring & summer I had the privilege to illustrate a literary novel! It’s been a really wonderful experience working with the editor, Jason, to add interior illustrations* to Corey’s richly-textured novel of Beale Street, Memphis, and the mythology of the blues.
Corey’s prose is full of rich character, and it was really easy to find images to go with it. Jason chose a scribbled black-and-white style of mine for the illustrations, and I did 9 images total, sprinkled throughout the book. He’d pick a story and have me read through it, then either ask for something specific, or something that went well with the story. I tried to keep everything as loose as a good blues jam, and capture the feel of each story.
The whole novel fits together to tell how a community went from its height of mythic glory, dipped down, and started building itself back up again. Everything is steeped in the language of the era and the feel of the blues, and I hope you’ll head on over to Ampersand Books and give it a shot!
illustration from Diddy Wah Diddy
Above, you can see a woman chilling at the bar, enjoying a legendary cocktail, helping to set the scene for the book. Below, I chose the author’s favorite of the group. I’ll let you read the book to find out how the werewolf ended up in the jar.
another illustration from Diddy Wah Diddy
If you’ve got a project that you think needs my illustrator’s touch, I’ve got info here about how you can hire me.
*Their designer did the cover, which is rich and red and beautifully sets the mood for the prose within.
Categories: Completed Commissions, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: all rights reserved, book illustration, commission, illustration, pen and ink
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J is for Journey
Tuesday, September 24th, 2013
J is for Journey, commissioned illuminated capital by Amy Crook
Predictably, one of the first letters in my Illuminated Alphabet to sell was the J is for Juxtapose. After a lot of wembling and waffling, I’ve finally completed another J for a wonderful patron who commissioned one. He was trying at first to stick to the typographical theme of the finished alphabet, but in the end it just wasn’t working with the elements he wanted.
Instead, I snuck off and finished up the sketch this way, knowing that he’s got a love of maps and using the requested orange for the main capital. The smaller letter is in Tengwar, one of Tolkien’s invented alphabets, and a letter long-beloved by my patron. The squiggly red map-line was added near the end, though usual the glitter gel pen was saved for the very last. The faux Celtic decorations on the J were added in freehand, and you can see them better in the below photo, along with a clearer idea of the orange color behind them, which my scanner tended to oversaturate.
J is for Journey by Amy Crook
Categories: Completed Commissions, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: alphabet, commission, glitter gel pen, nfs, pen and ink, watercolor
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Words Wednesday: Interview with Tara Swiger
Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
Tara Swiger is an author, maker, and Starship Captain. She leads explorations into your mission, your marketing, and your enthusiasm…for teeny tiny art-y businesses (like mine!). Currently she’s putting together a very cool course called Explore You to help you boldly go.
Tara’s gotten two very different illustration projects from me, and she’s agreed to tell you how it went and what she’s doing with her art.
Q: Why did you decide to get commissioned art?
A: I think my first piece of commissioned art was the Starship*…and I got it because I wanted something to symbolize the space I was creating. A custom illustration made it seem so much more real (and professional!)
The second piece was a map for my Map Making Guide. I knew I wanted something really nice but don’t have the skills to create one myself! I wanted to create a better product, so I needed to bring in someone with better skills!
Q: How do you incorporate these illustrations into your business?
A: I use the Starship in the header of the actual Starship (a community site/forum), in my emails, and in a few ads!
The map illustration is part of the actual product of the map-making guide…so my customers use them to create maps of their goals!
Q: What did you hope an illustration would add to your projects?
A: My business is metaphor-friendly, but when those metaphors represent actual things (the community, the Guide) I need something other than words — I need the pictures to illustrate what I’m talking about! I felt that custom images would make it more professional and “put together” than anything I could make.
Q: How did the process work from your end?
A: It was so easy! I gave Amy a few ideas and she got it right away! I was so surprised, because I was super-nervous, but Amy made it easy!
Q: Have you had any unexpected awesome from your art?
A: Amy sent the original sketch of the Starship and it hangs in my hallway with all my favorite pictures! I love what it stands for (this amazing community of support I’ve created) and that I’m reminded of it every day!
Thanks for taking the time to share, Tara!
If you’re interested in commissioning an illustration for your own business, you can check out the details here.
*Starship Craftybiz by Amy Crook for Tara Swiger, all rights reserved
Stylin’ on her wall at home with her Instagrammed life!
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: all rights reserved, commission, tara swiger, words
Flowers for Bilbo
Friday, July 26th, 2013
Flowers for Bilbo, a Hobbit parody commission by Amy Crook
“Tears, Gandalf. Tears and murder.”
Yes, this is related to a fic. No, I’m not going to tell you where to find it. Just be amused by poor Bilbo getting courting bouquets by two infamous dwarves, Dwalin and Thorin. Don’t worry, I’m sure it all turns out all right in the end, no murder required.
Flowers for Bilbo, 7″x5″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper, nfs (sold).
Flowers for Bilbo, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see Bilbo’s worried expression and pink blush, and some of my carefully-researched flowers. I had to look up what most things actually looked like, though I did know how to draw Lily of the Valley already. Below, you can see it hanging out in a temporary frame, looking spiffy before it gets shipped off to its new home.
Flowers for Bilbo, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bilbo baggins, commission, copic marker, dwalin, dwarf, hobbit, nfs, pen and ink, sold, thorin
3 Service Dogs
Saturday, June 29th, 2013
3 Service Dogs by Amy Crook for Action Leashes
commission – all rights reserved
After I put these guys on my illustration commissions page, I totally forgot about posting them properly, oops! This trio of doggies were for a coloring book about service animals, and you can see they’re sporting a variety of service harnesses as examples. I have to admit, I found it harder to realistically draw dogs than I do to draw stick-figure humans, but once I got my eyes used to the idea, they came out quite clearly.
3 Service Dogs, 3 5″x7″ pen & ink drawings on paper, nfs (commission). All rights to this art are reserved for the client – no stealing the doggies!
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art
Tags: all rights reserved, commission, pen and ink
Kobold Curry Chef
Friday, June 21st, 2013
Kobold Curry Chef for Jefferson, by Amy Crook
commission, all rights reserved
This is one of those comic commissions that was just ridiculously fun to draw. He’s based on one of those in-jokey sort of anecdotes that are only really funny if you were there, but since I was there, I find him amusing. From the half-seen diagram of a chicken catapult to the blind albino cave chicken stiff with fear for his future as ammo, curry, or both, it all amuses me.
For those who wonder about such things, since he’s for personal, non-commercial use, I charged Jefferson the Be a Cartoon price, plus an extra fee for all the many extra props and details. Though not too much more, since I didn’t have to draw pants.
Kobold Curry Chef, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper, nfs (commission).
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, commission, copic marker, jefferson, nfs, pen and ink
Ace of Cthulhu Hearts
Saturday, May 25th, 2013
Ace of Cthulhu Hearts by Amy Crook
One of my friends asked me for a playing card prop for her Lady Luck costume at a con this weekend, and so I used my Cthulhu’s heart art and popped it into a quickie design. If I was going to do the cards for real, I’d probably do something more elaborate for the background, but I didn’t feel like fighting with the white background on the heart image. I printed a page of them on cardstock for her to cut up into a prop (I put 9 on the page so she’d have plenty of extras), and she’s planning to put one in the brim of her top hat.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: cthulhu
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