Archive for the ‘Completed Commissions’ Category
Combat Boots commission
Saturday, August 4th, 2012
Combat Boots with Pink Laces, commission by Amy Crook for Lee Miller
This was a quick, easy little illustration commission for my week, combat boots with pink laces for Lee Miller of Pink Bubblegum Websites. I drew, inked and colored everything by hand, then cleaned it up in Photoshop and Bob’s your uncle, as the British say.
If you like my style and you’re interested in getting a bit of illustration of your own, drop me a line. I’m always happy to help out.
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art
Tags: all rights reserved, commission, copic marker, pen and ink
Fairy Godmother Cartoon
Saturday, June 30th, 2012
Fairy Godmother commission by Amy Crook
I’ve been working with Jo Van Every to create some illustrations she can use in her lectures and with her clients, and this generous lady is one of them. She wanted a fairy godmother to help people doing grant proposals and other academic career thinking to really sit down and wish for whatever they could possibly want, to help un-limit their thinking. We made sure the bag was separate so she can use it for exercises by itself, too, and she’s even got a version that’s just black and white for people to use as a coloring book page.
Cool, huh?
This is what Jo had to say about her illustration:
“I help social science and humanities academics with grant proposals, individually and in workshops. Unlike scientists, humanities profs often have difficulty figuring out what they need the money for. Their frugality muscles are pretty well developed and they sometimes get stuck in a loop where they can’t imagine even asking for more money because they aren’t sure they can justify that. For a recent workshop I asked Amy if she could do a Fairy Godmother that I could use in an exercise to get them thinking about money. Fairy Godmothers don’t ask you to write proposals and justify your budget. They just grant you money, though sometimes they have rules about using it by midnight or whatever. I put different sums of money on cards in a bag and got each small group to pick a number out of the bag and then brainstorm all the research they could do if the Fairy Godmother granted them that amount. Now I use it with individual clients, too. I encourage them to try different numbers on that loot bag and dream.
“The magic thing about a Fairy Godmother is that once you’ve played with just being granted this amount of money, it’s easier to work on the piece where you make a case for how important this work is and justify spending that much money.”
If you’d like something nifty of your own, consider my Be a Cartoon service. As you can see, you don’t even have to use it to become a cartoon yourself if you don’t want to!
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: all rights reserved, commission, copic marker, fairy, jo vanevery, nfs, pen and ink
Skully Mini Volant
Friday, May 18th, 2012
Skully Mini Volant customized Moleskine by Amy Crook
This XSmall Volant is only 4″ tall, making it perfect to tuck into a pocket, purse or pouch. A friend bought the grey set and then tossed this one at me to decorate, and since he bribed me with tea, treats and cocktails, I was happy to oblige. He didn’t give me any direction, so he got skulls and crosshatching, which I’m sure comes as a huge shock.
I’m considering picking up another set of them for my Etsy shop, but we’ll see. Some things just work better when I’m not worried about finding an audience for them.
Skully Mini Volant, 2.7″x4″ Sharpie oil paint markers on Moleskine XSmall Volant, nfs.
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: moleskine, sharpie, sharpie marker, volant
Cartoon: Jocelyne Leach
Saturday, April 28th, 2012
Jocelyne Leach as a Cartoon by Amy Crook
I like to think Jocelyne’s cartoon really shows how far I’ve come with this style of art. She’s doing a simple yoga pose with the legs, has her logo on her tank top, and is toasting us with a tasty green smoothie in her left hand. I think this tall, skinny image is going to go in her sidebar to welcome guests to her website.
Here’s to you, Jocelyne, for being a great client!
If you’d like to Be a Cartoon yourself, just click here to see how! (Hint: there’s a button at the bottom of the page to buy.)
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: all rights reserved, be a cartoon, cartoon, commission, copic marker, nfs, pen and ink
Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, interior
Friday, April 27th, 2012
Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, interior, drawing by Amy Crook
Yesterday we saw the outside of 221b Baker street, and today it’s the interior. My Baker Street Tinies series combines the world of the recent Sherlock series from the BBC with the worlds and aesthetics of Edward Gorey.
Nicole and Mo wanted to celebrate their own love and their love of Sherlock Holmes with tattoos, and so we created a unique Gorey-ish vision of 221b Baker Street for each of them. You can’t have the originals — they’re spoken for — but you can get the designs on greeting cards at Etsy!
The wallpaper is straight out of the tv show, as are the fireplace and the antelope skull with its white headphones, though in the show none of these things are on the same wall. John’s Union Jack pillow is sitting on a very Gorey-ish sofa, along with Sherlock’s ubiquitous deerstalker cap. The mantel holds Sherlock’s skull, some mail jackknifed into the wood, a portrait of the pair of them, and abandoned milk with cold tea next to it. Now we know why they always have to buy more milk.
The bookshelf on the right is full of little details, most of which are hard to see without looking at the bigger version.
I really enjoyed working on this pair of drawings for Nicole and Mo, and I hope the tattoos come out beautifully. It was a great challenge to reference so many things in two tiny pieces of art, from the tv series to the books to the art and worlds of Edward Gorey. I’m already thinking about what I’ll do with them next!
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: 221b baker street, baker street tinies, edward gorey, etsy, nfs, sherlock, sold
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Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior, drawing by Amy Crook
Today’s and tomorrow’s art are the newest in my Baker Street Tinies series, which combines the world of the recent Sherlock series from the BBC with the worlds and aesthetics of Edward Gorey.
Like the previous four, these were commissioned, so the originals are already sold and mailed off to their new owners. Nicole and Mo wanted to celebrate their own love and their love of Sherlock Holmes with tattoos, and so we created a unique Gorey-ish vision of 221b Baker Street for each of them. You can’t have the originals, but you can get the designs on greeting cards at Etsy!
This exterior shot is only somewhat faithful to the series — 221b itself has many of the features of Baker Street in the tv show, but the rest of the buildings are fanciful re-imaginings. You can see a shadow of a certain detective in the window of 221b, talking to the skull sitting atop a pile of books in the other window. Someone seems to have left their umbrella outside, but they can catch one of London’s famous black cabs if it rains. There’s even a binary joke hiding in the windows of the middle building.
My personal favorite is the fourth building, which just looks so very sad and shocked at what goes on in its neighborhood.
“Amy was an absolute pleasure to work with. She asked great questions to get at what we wanted out of the artwork, sent us drafts along the way, and worked with us to shape a final product that is absolutely stunning. She went above and beyond to see that the final product fit our needs, and we had a great experience all around.”
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: 221b baker street, baker street tinies, edward gorey, etsy, nfs, pen and ink, sherlock, sold
Grumpy Weeble for JoVE
Saturday, March 31st, 2012
Grumpy Weeble cartoon for Jo VanEvery, all rights reserved
The delightful Jo VanEvery wanted a cartoon — stat! — for a seminar she was doing. She wanted someone that looked a bit like one’s inner academic saying, “no!” to all the possibilities for one’s career and research. We decided on a weeble, and I sent her the colors you see above for a poster, and the inks (which I always scan before I color, in case of mishap), which they used for a coloring book page during the seminar.
She liked him so much, she’s getting a couple more, so expect to see a few more of her illustrations popping up in the coming weeks!
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, commission, copic marker, jo vanevery, nfs, pen and ink, weeble
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