Archive for the ‘Daily Art’ Category
Spiral Islands
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
Spiral Islands by Amy Crook
This is actually the first piece I started with my salt-saturated solution, before adding the blue paint to the bottle. I was experimenting with the delivery, which is much less precise, trying to make spirals to go with the messy scribbled-pen spirals already on the page. You can see where they intersected, the salt water picked up the brown pigment from the black ink and left the rest behind, giving those pools an orange cast.
After I painted in the blue-black background, the whole thing reminded me of a cluster of islands in some turbulent ocean. I especially like how some of the salt spirals are nearly intact, while others are barely a suggestion of broken lines.
Spiral Islands, mixed media on paper.
Spiral Islands, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of just one of the salt spirals and how it intersects with the ink spiral beneath it. The two separate pools got different amounts of ink infused into them, so the lower one is visibly orange while the upper curl is barely off white.
Below, I’ve taken a shot of the lay of the land, as it were, and this shining, mysterious little archipelago makes a great computer wallpaper.
Spiral Islands, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Once it’s safely tucked into its frame, it feels even more map-like to me. Here there be dragons, I guess?
Spiral Islands, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: black, blue, for sale, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
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Tentacle Deeps 32
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 32 by Amy Crook
This tentacle painting is much more subtle and mysterious than the usual, covered almost entirely in salt crystals. There’s a dark violet-black background hiding under all that salt, and then iridescent violet tentacles. Then I inundated the whole thing with my potion of salt, water and paint. After it dried, I went in with black ink and brought the tentacles back up out of the sparkling murk I’d created.
The effect in the end is both murky and sparkly at the same time, and really does make me think of deep R’lyeh where mysteries slumber, waiting to rise up through the blue deeps to the surface.
Tentacle Deeps 32, 5″x7″ salt, sumi-e ink, and watercolor on paper.
Of course it’s terribly hard to catch the feel of this art in a scan or photo, so much of it changes with the light and angle, but I’ve taken some detail photos to try.
Tentacle Deeps 32, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above is the usual photo from the bottom of the tentacles, but this time it almost looks like an 80s fantasy movie set after they applied all the glitter. You can see the swirling colors and shapes, and the tentacles dark and mysterious running through it. Below, I took a shot of the longest tentacle and the varying textures in and around it. I liked the way that one turned out with its shining squares on the left and sand-like salt crystals to the right, so I made you yet another wallpaper. Don’t you feel special?
Tentacle Deeps 32, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, iridescent, salt, sumi-e ink, tentacle deeps, tentacles, violet, watercolor
Blue Moon 2
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
Blue Moon 2, abstract art by Amy Crook
Even though this piece shares a name and some materials with my first Blue Moon, that’s about all they have in common. The blues in this are all muted except for the vivid French Ultramarine moon itself, and even the little halos of iridescent paint became quite subtle painted wet-in-wet.
I made the 7 stars the usual way with paint and salt and water, but the moon was part of my newest experiment where I put paint into some water I had already saturated with as much salt as I could boil into it. Pretty much all of this week’s art was made with this technique, for some fascinating results. Sparkly ones!
Blue Moon 2, 5″x5.25″ salt and watercolor on watercolor paper.
Blue Moon 2, detail 1, by Amy Crook
You can see little particles of the iridescent paint around the borders of the halo, and I thought the shot of the moon itself came out so well I made a wallpaper for you. Yes, you.
Below, you can see the lightning-like formations around the edges of some of the pools, and the way I brushed the outer rim of the salt pools with the blue-black paint, which sinks into the crevices and gives it deep shadows.
Blue Moon 2, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Since this one isn’t quite square, I haven’t framed it yet, but it’ll get its lovely black frame before it goes to live in its new home.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books
Tags: black, blue, blue moon, for sale, moon, salt, watercolor
Harry Potter ink sketch
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Harry Potter, ink sketch by Amy Crook
Another little sketch that went as a gift with some art. Harry always was fascinated with magic, and I like his expression, leaning back and admiring his Lumos.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: Harry Potter, nfs, pen and ink, sketch
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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Pattern Recognition
Friday, March 30th, 2012
Pattern Recognition, abstract art by Amy Crook
This piece started out as tiny bead-like droplets of salt-infused ink on the paper. The salt crystals that grew were small and black, evenly spaced across the ink circles, and the ink was actually coating the salt so they hardly sparkled at all. I took a wet brush and idly doodled the uppermost right-hand pattern by re-wetting the ink and drawing it out in three long, swooping lines. Using water to separate this ink shows off its complex color structure of blue and orangey-brown, and so I used the same method to make patterns around the rest of the ink dots as well.
Since I gently dissolved some of the ink off of the salt crystals, they regained a tiny bit of sparkle, so this image that could have been boring black and white had I made it with pen and ink, has a three-dimensional, full-color palette of tiny details. Sometimes it’s worth it to do things the ridiculously complicated way.
Pattern Recognition, 5″x5.25″ ink and salt on paper, $234 framed, with free shipping.
The detail shot below shows off both the color variation in the “black” ink, and the dull shine of the tiny salt crystals. To give you a sense of scale, the entire design in this photo is about the size of a quarter.
Pattern Recognition, detail, by Amy Crook
I haven’t yet framed this piece, it’s just a tiny bit too big for a 5″x5″ frame, so it’ll get mounted into a larger 8″x8″ frame before going to its new home.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: brush and ink, for sale, ink, salt
Quadrivium
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
Quadrivium Supplies logo, art by Amy Crook, all rights reserved
My awesome friend Catherine has started up a brand-new company called Quadrivium Supplies, and I’m very pleased to have gotten to design her logo and product labels. She wanted a calligraphic Q of some kind, we went trolling the internet for ideas together. I drew the art quite small by hand with pen and ink and, as you can see, no ruler for the inking. I wanted it to have some rough edges the way a real woodcut would.
Even though the original art is only 2″ tall, I scanned it in Ridiculously High Resolution so she’d be able to use it on anything she liked. So far she’s using the small version the most, on her website, Twitter avatar, and labels. Irony.
I also drew her dingbats! They match the leaflike style of the decorations in her Q, and we used one of them on her labels. These are only 1/2″ tall in real life, but I made them big for the internets because I don’t hate you.
Quadrivium Supplies Banishing Ritual Oil label, design by Amy Crook, all rights reserved
“I started out with, ‘I want a logo. Maybe it should have a Q in it.’ And she got it narrowed down so fast by practically reading my mind and figuring out exactly what I wanted.”
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art
Tags: all rights reserved, calligraphy, commission, logo, pen and ink
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