Archive for the ‘Daily Art’ Category
Filigree Moon
Monday, June 25th, 2012
Filigree Moon by Amy Crook
I’m utterly delighted by this piece, from the salt pools with their soft, chalky centers to the fine filigree of glittering spirals over the subtly colored moon. I almost didn’t put a price on it at all, and I’ll definitely find a spot for it among my shelves where it can bring me delight for as long as it lives here.
The glitter gel pen has no actual pigment in it, and the glitter in it is remarkably large, so that you get an effect of translucency that reminds me of glitter nail polish. From some angles the filigree is bright and obvious, but from others, like the one in the scanner, it’s barely there at all. The tiny salt-pool stars add their own bit of sparkle to the piece, and the velvety black paper makes the perfect space backdrop.
Filigree Moon, 7″x5″ salt, Japanese watercolor and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Filigree Moon, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the filigree lit up by the sunlight, spirals and curlicues that shimmer and vanish when you turn the painting away from the sun. Below, you can see that I’ve finally had the brilliant idea to photograph the black paper pieces without the glass in the frame, and magically there’s no glare. Fancy that.
Filigree Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, filigree, for sale, glitter gel pen, moon, periwinkle, salt, spirals, watercolor
1 Comment »
Blue Flower sketch
Sunday, June 24th, 2012
Blue Flower watercolor sketch by Amy Crook
Just a little sketch I did with my water brush in my little notebook to cheer up your weekend. It’s not really meant to be any specific flower, just a pretty one.
Happy Sunday!
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: nfs, sketch, watercolor
Dirigible
Friday, June 22nd, 2012
“Should we haul him up?”
“Nah, let him dangle a little longer.”
Dirigible, Girl Genius art by Amy Crook
I seem to have become obsessed with patterns, though I already knew I had a strange thing for spirals. I used my water brush, which is a nifty device with a well of water the way a brush pen might have ink. I dipped the tip in paint and began at the center, then brushed outward, the color getting more and more diluted until there’s hardly any blue left. Then, of course, once I had the spiraling clouds, I needed something to float in them. I put a brass trilobyte on the side of a dirigible as an homage to the wonderful Girl Genius webcomic.
The dirigible’s dangling passenger is just a bonus.
Dirigible, 8″x4″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Dirigible, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the lovely purple Dirigible with its golden trilobyte and passenger holding on for dear life below, next to a dime for scale. Below, it’s resting temporarily in a 10″x8″ frame, hanging out with my iPhone for an entirely different sort of size reference.
Dirigible, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, girl genius, spirals, things that are actually steampunk, tiny fandom, watercolor
1 Comment »
Dramatic
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
“If you’re quite done with the dramatic poses, there is a case, you know.”
Dramatic, Sherlock art by Amy Crook
This one’s actually based on a bit in the second episode of Series 2, The Hounds of Baskerville. There’s a point at which Sherlock is up on a windy promontory, looking over the moors, with John down below waiting patiently for him to stop enjoying the way his coat looks blowing in the breeze.
He does so love to be dramatic.
Dramatic, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Dramatic, detail, by Amy Crook
Above you can see the strange clouds and impatient John with Sherlock off in the distance, framing a perfectly boring dime. Below, it’s temporarily in the same 8″x10″ frame you’ll have grown used to seeing this week, for scale.
Dramatic, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, sherlock, sunset, tiny fandom, watercolor, watson
2 Comments »
On Fandom, Fan Art, and Being a Big Dorky Fangirl
Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
S is for Sherlock, Baker Street Tinies art by Amy Crook
By Starlight by Amy Crook
I sometimes think I’ve always been a fan of something. I remember getting into reading Star Trek books when I was maybe 12, but before that it was Stephen King and my big horror phase at 10, and before that I read every Nancy Drew book the library had, and all the Oz books (did you know it was a series?), and the Narnia books, and… Yeah.
I’ve always lived best in other people’s worlds. Even though every one of the things I named above, and every one of the things I’m a fan of now is problematic in some way, that doesn’t diminish my love for them.
Doctor Who
Bookmark 1
by Amy crook
As an artist, it’s always been a calling to me to draw or paint the things I was a fan of. I remember when I was younger, drawing ridiculously detailed pencil art from posters of the bands and actors I swooned over as a pre-teen. And now I’m nearly 40, and I still draw and paint things out of other people’s worlds, other people’s imaginations.
Transformative works are everywhere we look these days. From Sherlock to The Avengers, the new anthologies of stories in the Cthulhu Mythos and the explosion of unlicensed fanworks online (note: yes, the stuff here goes in that category), people are looking back through the things that came before, rifling through the imaginations of the past to build a foundation for the things they make now.
I love it.
Every once in a while I roll my eyes at the endless sequels and remakes and book-to-movie adaptations, but in truth it’s more Sturgeon’s Law (90% of everything is crap) I’m disparaging than the desire to depict Shakespeare as high school drama or make stylized movie posters for films from a different era.
So, I’ve embraced my dorky fangirl heritage, and in amongst the abstract salt paintings and tentacles you’ll find cartoon monsters out of someone else’s imagination and other pastiches of my favorite things.
I’ll just try not to do too much that falls into that bottom 90%.
Weeble Voldemort cartoon by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Things I'm a Fan Of, Words Words Words
Tags: info, why, words
Seekers
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
“Who wins if It gets the Snitch?”
Seekers, Harry Potter art by Amy Crook
I’ve done so many paintings of tentacles rising up from mysterious depths that I thought it might be fun to do a set striving for the heights instead. These pale, half-translucent tentacles are reaching toward an errant Golden Snitch, and disrupting someone’s game of Quidditch.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Just ask Harry Potter.
Seekers, 4″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Seekers, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the Golden Snitch next to an ordinary dime for scale. Tiny, tiny scale. Below, for a different sort of scale, I’ve temporarily put the painting in a standard 8″x10″ frame so you can imagine how it would fit into your home. Because it totally would fit into your home. I mean, doesn’t everyone need tentacles?
Seekers, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, Harry Potter, tentacles, tiny fandom, watercolor
Adrift
Monday, June 18th, 2012
“You’re sure you know where we’re going?”
Adrift, Doctor Who art by Amy Crook
After doing Mario’s Cave, I started to get more ideas for putting tiny bits of the things I’m a fan of into my paintings in a meaningful, interesting way. Tomorrow’s is actually the next one I thought of, but I’m saving it for the traditional day. This one I painted the pattern of waves-or-maybe-scales, and then staring at it I thought, I could put a TARDIS, just there.
Floating adrift on a sea of scales-or-maybe-waves seems like just the sort of trouble the Doctor would get himself into.
Adrift, 8″x4″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Adrift, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the actual size of the wee TARDIS next to a dime, though the actual colors are not quite so brightly cyan as all that. Below, I’ve temporarily tucked it into a 10″x8″ frame to show you how it might look.
Adrift, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: doctor who, for sale, tiny fandom, watercolor
« Or Head Back That Way
More Art This Way »
