Archive for the ‘Daily Art’ Category
Treasures
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Treasures by Amy Crook, $199
I only added a few minimal details to the original tea wash on this piece. I took brown pen and gave the face I saw dark eyes, so it looks like a mysterious veiled creature curled possessively around the lighter space in the center. Then I gave it something to be possessive of — I used the same brown ink to make spirals for the salt crystals to rest on, and then went through the process to make salt pools.
I took some photos of the process so you can see it below.
Treasures, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $199, framed, with free shipping.
First we have the dried tea wash, ink, and carefully chosen crystals of salt. There’s a lot of size variation in the bottle of coarse sea salt I bought, so I make sure to choose appropriately for the effect I want. In this case, I went for small to medium crystals so the pools would stay discrete and relatively flat.
Treasures, work in progress part 1, by Amy Crook
Second, I drop on the water with an eyedropper. The water washes the dust and scratches off the salt right away, leaving clear crystals that are hard to see, and the ink immediately starts to curl up into the water as well.
Treasures, work in progress part 2, by Amy Crook
Here the salt and ink have dissolved as much as they’re going to, making a fluid made of brown ink, salt, whatever tea dissolves back in, and of course tap water.
Treasures, work in progress part 3, by Amy Crook
And finally the water evaporates overnight, taking sometimes as much as a full day and leaving behind salt crystals imbued with the ink and tea. These crystals grow onto the paper, and so they’re quite well-attached. The tea gave the salt a very subtle bluish tint for some reason, though the brown ink really covers that up.
Treasures, work in progress part 4, by Amy Crook
I found a lovely wood frame that matches wonderfully with the warm browns of the tea wash. Below you can see the final piece in its frame, with the mysterious figure looming protectively over the 7 sparkling piles of salt.
Treasures, framed, by Amy Crook, $199
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: for sale, salt, tea
Aglow
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Aglow by Amy Crook, $699
Something about this piece just makes me happy every time I look at it, the 13 glowing circles reminding me of stars, or fireflies, or even lamps through a dark mist. The dark blue-black background perfectly offsets the magical snowflake-like rosettes that formed when I tried my salt trick on this softer, more porous paper.
Aglow, in progress, by Amy Crook
The other interesting difference with this paper was that the water droplets formed little wells that actually sunk into the paper, making dimples on the back.
Aglow, back, by Amy Crook
When I painted in the background afterward, the paint was drawn straight into the circle by the salt crystals whenever the brush touched the edge of one of the little branches.
Aglow, detail 1, by Amy Crook
This is a really good close-up of a pair of the crystalline structure, so you can see all the detail that gets softened into a simple warm glow when you back up and see it from a distance.
Aglow, detail 2, by Amy Crook
I put it into a wide black frame, which sets off the warmth of the paper and the not-quite-black of the paint really nicely.
Aglow, framed, by Amy Crook
Aglow, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $699, framed, with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: fireflies, for sale, salt, sky, stars, watercolor
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Delight Gremlin
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
Delight Gremlin by Amy Crook, all rights reserved
The charming Chris Anthony is has recently re-branded his business as The Delightworks! As part of his new thing, he’s planning to sneak in some easter eggs throughout the site, so he asked me to do a cartoon for him. Instead of drawing him, which I’ve already done, he asked me to draw what I imagined his little gremlin might look like from the front. If you’re not sure where the original is, it’s hiding out on his home page, just keep looking.
He’s not quite a weeble, but I figured he was cute enough for a Wednesday, anyway.
Want a cartoon of your own? Get one here.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, commission, copic marker, nfs, pen and ink
Mist
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Mist by Amy Crook, $169
This simple piece puts me in mind of a magical fog rolling in, wrapping the world in a muffling mist, turning everything into texture and dim shape. The detailed texture in the watercolor fascinates me, the subtle gradations in color and density that make it so much more than a simple blob of color.
I’m still on the lookout for good frames in this size, but I do love the way the embossing on the archival cardstock forms a mat that interacts with the image inside when the paint bumps up and sometimes over the edges of its artificial border.
I’ve made a computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper of this piece to help showcase the subtle textures that get lost in the tiny version above.
Mist, 8.5″x5.5″ watercolor on embossed paper, $169 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: for sale, watercolor
1 Comment »
Untitled Jar 1
Monday, June 20th, 2011
Untitled Jar 1, interior, by Amy Crook
I’ve finally given in to my six-month admiration of Kirsty M Hall’s 365 Jars project and made a jar of my own!
It started out as yet another salt experiment, but for whatever reason the water soaked through the paper, making a fascinating layered piece of art. There’s even salt crystals formed inside the paper itself, pushing their shape up under the matte inked spirals. The back of the paper is subtly sparkly, though, which forms the inner curve of the piece. This purple ink tends to separate out into the water, making the salt circles a pinkish lavender and the spirals themselves a darker blue-violet.
I wanted a way to display the piece that invited the viewer to look at both sides, and the idea of curling it up into a jar seemed obvious after nearly half a year of seeing Kirsty’s daily posts. I first tried it out in a smaller corked bottle I have, but the paper was curled too tight to see inside, defeating the whole point.
In order to make it fit properly in the jar, I tore the paper into an organic shape, including liberating one of the swirls onto its own little piece of paper that sits against the glass in the gap between edges. Then I filled the bottom with the same rock salt I use to make these art pieces, including a few chunks that had been stained with pink and blue ink hiding amongst all the white.
Below you can see all six faces of the jar, and at the bottom I’ve made a silly gif of the jar rotating endlessly.
Untitled Jar 1, mixed media in a jar, not for sale.
The obvious first panel, with my signature on it in the original purple color.
Untitled Jar 1, detail, by Amy Crook
Here you can see the “front” really clearly, the swirls with their salt-crystal texture and just the edge of my signature.
Untitled Jar 1, detail, by Amy Crook
Another good shot of the salt texture, with a few surface crystals catching the light. You can also see the backs of some of the other shapes in the tiny window above the torn paper.
Untitled Jar 1, detail, by Amy Crook
Here the two sides are juxtaposed.
Untitled Jar 1, detail, by Amy Crook
The big, sparkly inside shape with its variegated shades of lavender, plus the little escapist swirl on its own little island of paper.
Untitled Jar 1, detail, by Amy Crook
Another good shot of the back and the way the ink bled through in different colors than what stayed on the surface, and a few of the blue-tinted salt crystals are visible down at the bottom.
Untitled Jar 1, detail, by Amy Crook
Here’s the animated version, which loses some detail but is kind of fun to watch:
Untitled Jar 1, animated, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: jar, nfs, pen and ink, purple, salt
Shrinky Dinks 1
Saturday, June 18th, 2011
Shrinky Dinks, set 1, by Amy Crook
Do you remember Shrink Dinks? I had forgotten all about them until I ran across the Klutz Press book on them, which of course I bought, and then proceeded to store away for years with my art supplies. Well, today is the day they finally got put to use.
I used about 1/3 of a sheet for these guys, and wow, they got soooo wee. Seriously, I was somehow not expecting them to shrink quite so much, but I have future wicked plans for making more. Here you can see them with a dime for size comparison — on my screen, they’re actually larger than they are in real life.
Shrinky Dinks, set 1, by Amy Crook
Dark-colored Sharpies are still quite dark on the semi-transparent plastic, though you can see the colors clearly above with the lights shining through. I’m definitely going to have to experiment with some more of these, and then figure out how to price them and what for. Perhaps a set of ninja stitch markers? Zombie zipper pulls? Cthulhu on a cord for a necklace?
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: cthulhu, ninja, omgwee, shrinky dinks, squid, zombie
4 Comments »
Bubbling
Friday, June 17th, 2011
Bubbling by Amy Crook, $199
This piece reminds me of bubbles rising up through a lemon-lime soda, or perhaps a glass cauldron full of mysterious iridescent goo. The salt has no ink under each pool this time, so it picked up a little of the paint but remained largely clear. The crystals really catch the light like bubbles, as you can see below. The ink spirals were drawn in while the watercolor was still wet, so they blurred into the background, blending the piece into a more harmonic whole.
A lot of my pieces use numbers that are interesting to me – there’s 7 green swirls in this one, for instance, but the salt pools go to eleven.
This is another size I haven’t yet sourced frames for, but I’m on the lookout, since I’ve done a couple of pieces on this larger stock lately. The paper is thin and tends to warp, but it’s a nice smooth, bright white that takes the colors really well.
However you choose to view this piece, it’s definitely got a cheery, bubbly sort of feel to it.
Bubbling, 5.5″x8.5″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on embossed cardstock, $199 with free shipping.
Bubbling, detail, by Amy Crook, $199
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
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