Archive for the ‘Daily Art’ Category
Event Horizons: Black, Blacker, Blackest
Monday, March 19th, 2012
Event Horizons: Black, Blacker, Blackest watercolor triptych by Amy Crook
I entered this triptych in the juried art auction for IMSA25, the 25th anniversary for my old high school. They wanted art with a theme of energy and innovation, and the connection of these mini black holes was enough to get in, thankfully.
I actually only had the first piece done, the white one, when I decided to enter them into the show. The idea to make them into a triptych came later, and I really think the framing on their grey backing paper was the final piece that the work needed to come together. The salt pools in all three pieces are infused with fountain pen ink, and then I used the pen to draw a circle around each pool, a little event horizon between the pool and the black halo around it.
Interestingly, the black paper absorbed the Lunar Black paint too well for it to really granulate like it does on the other two pieces, and the paint is just slightly blacker than the paper itself, which provides an interesting contrast to the other two parts of the series. The whole thing makes me think of atoms or micro black holes, something tiny and mysterious that can’t normally be seen with the naked eye.
Event Horizons: Black, Blacker, Blackest, 3-5″x7″ mixed media on paper, nfs (available at the auction only).
I’ve got one detail shot from each piece for you, anyway, just because I think they’re beautiful.
Event Horizons 1: Black, detail, by Amy Crook
Event Horizons 2: Blacker, detail, by Amy Crook
Event Horizons 3: Blackest, detail, by Amy Crook
This is my first juried show in nearly 20 years, so I was extremely nervous about entering, and very excited to get in! I just thought you should know that. Heh.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: art auction, black paper, pen and ink, salt, triptych, watercolor
Orange Face sketch
Sunday, March 18th, 2012
Orange Face sketch by Amy Crook
This is actually a virulent orange in my wee sketchbook, but by desaturating it a little bit, you can see some of the brushstrokes that a super-bright orange hides on a monitor. I sketched this with a sumi-e brush and the orange paint leftover from making my goldfish, using the pause screen on whatever DVD I was watching as a very loose reference.
I’m pleased that, although the paper buckled some, the paint didn’t bleed through onto the next page.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: nfs, orange, sketch, watercolor
Mother Hydra
Saturday, March 17th, 2012
Mother Hydra cartoon by Amy Crook
I’ve taken some liberties here and used a more classic interpretation of a hydra, rather than the Lovecraftian description of Father Dagon’s bride. There’s just no way to make a vast pool of screaming faces cute, really.
As it is, I can totally imagine at least one of her heads yelling, “No more wire hangers!” She’s even got pearls and lovely pink-painted claws nails.
Just don’t mention the screaming faces and monstrous claws pressing against her heavy, pregnant belly. Or think about what sort of monsters she’s the mother of, if you want to sleep tonight.
Mother Hydra, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: cartoon, copic marker, cthulhu, etsy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, weeble
Outlier
Friday, March 16th, 2012
Outlier, abstract art by Amy Crook, $399
Sometimes I can’t really explain why I like a piece of art, I just really do, and this is one of those. The scan really doesn’t do it justice, the green whorls and rays, and the purple lines joining the various salt pools. This one started with the salt pools in varying color intensities, then I put in the gel pen lines, and finally the spirals of watercolor. The watercolor picked up the glitter from the pen lines, and so there’s a subtle shimmer all through each one.
Outlier, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, $399 framed, with free shipping.
Outlier, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above is the smallest, darkest and furthest-flung of the salt pools. There’s a little scribbled spiral of purple around just this one outlying pool, and you can see how the glitter got distributed all through the spiral of watercolor. Below, a photo of three of the other pools in a row (and that wash of red in the upper left my camera seems determined to give this paper, sigh). I made an iPhone wallpaper of a similar shot, and I’m using it for my lock screen right now. Or at least until I change my mind again.
Outlier, detail 2, by Amy Crook
I like the way it looks in a frame, too, as though everything’s pulling against the purple lines and trying to find a way to sneak out of the frame entirely, tied together by forces you can’t quite name.
Outlier, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, glitter gel pen, green, iridescent, purple, salt, watercolor
Implied Goldfish
Thursday, March 15th, 2012
Implied Goldfish, watercolor by Amy Crook, $399
This is the sort of art that just makes me feel a little bit more delighted with the world when I look at it. Happy little goldfish swim around partially camouflaged by the white paper, while rings of sparkly blue gel pin circle the three-dimensional salt formations. Are they stones? The first fat drops of rain? Strange portals to another world? The implications are endless.
Implied Goldfish, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $399 framed, with free shipping.
Now here’s where I admit something very silly: today’s art is inspired by one of my mismatched cereal bowls. Really they’re rice bowls, but I mostly use them for Cheerios.
Omnomnom Fishies!
I buy a lot of my dishes in Japantown and this is no exception. Maybe one of these days I’ll do a giant picspam on a Weds of a bunch of them. There’s kitties!
Below, you can see the sparkly salt and glittery pen next to the totally unconcerned fishies. The color’s a bit off, because this is the paper my camera likes to think is secretly red (hint: it’s not).
Implied Goldfish, detail, by Amy Crook
And finally we have the usual framed art, a peaceful little pond to sit on your desk or tuck into a tiny bit of wall space.
Implied Goldfish, framed art by Amy Crook, $399
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals
Tags: blue, fish, for sale, glitter gel pen, orange, salt, watercolor
Use Me, Baby
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
Question: Can you use my art for this thing you want to do?
Answer: Maybe!
Growth by Amy Crook
Useful, huh? Well, maybe not.
Let me elaborate.
First off, everything I make is under copyright. Everything any artist makes is under copyright, unless they’ve specifically stated it’s not, or they’ve been dead long enough for it to expire.
That said, I’ve put most art on this site under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. This sounds complicated, but it’s not, I swear. Basically this means you can use my art if:
Tentacle Deeps 6 by Amy Crook
- You’re not making money off your use of it,
- You don’t change it,
- You credit me, and
- You link back to my site (either the specific post or the site in general) in the place you use it.
If you skip one of these steps, then you’re stealing my art, and that’s not very nice.
When can’t you use my art?
- If the post is tagged “all rights reserved” or it’s marked as a commission (often I’ve done both), it’s not available for re-use at all, period.
- If you want to put the image on or in a product such as an eBook, album cover, t-shirt or umbrella, you need to contact me about paying for a rights-restricted license. Basically, if you expect to make money off of it, then you need to pay me to use it.
- If you want to change the art, such as slapping text on it for a blog header, using it as a background for your own art, or shifting the colors to match your post theme, that’s not okay.
Don’t make me send this guy after you.
If you make money with your blog (either as marketing for your business or by getting advertisers), blog headers count as commercial use, anyway.
If you’re not sure, just email me! I’m totally open to helping you out here.
Okay, so when can you use my art?
If you want to use it as a blog post image, go ahead, as long as you credit and link back.
Summer Reading
by Amy Crook
If you want to use it as a wallpaper for your computer (or print 1000 of them and wallpaper your apartment), have at. There’s even a category for posts that have free wallpapers in them. Some are cropped for iPhone, some are just huge-sized for the biggest monitor you might happen to have.
There’s probably a ton of stuff I haven’t covered here, but the basic idea is, if you want to put some tentacles on a blog post you’re probably okay. If you want to put some tentacles on your own line of handmade back-scratchers, that’s probably not okay, but email me and we’ll talk.
You can also ask questions here, if there’s something I haven’t covered. Someone else is probably wondering the same thing, after all.
Sherlock Bookmark 4 by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: creative commons, info, licensing, use my art
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Tentacle Deeps 29
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 29, watercolor by Amy Crook
Unlike last week’s tentacles, these, you can have if you want to. Yes, Tuesday is upon us once again and this time I used the opaque Japanese watercolors on black paper to create a wonderful bright green background with an intriguing squamous texture. I used black paint to put in the tentacles, letting it re-wet the green and mix in, giving the whole thing a monochromatic, layered feeling. I’ve been trying to get back to doing the fading layers of tentacles, dark at first with lighter and more transparent ones fading off into the distance, though I do love some of the ones I’ve done with a single layer, as well. Basically, I just like tentacles. I know, you’re shocked.
I’ve been flipping through some of the last year or so’s worth of art, and it’s interesting to see how the tentacles started out in one specific style and then evolved into something else. Revisiting those older pieces, I’ve been revisiting some of the original ideas, like having the wash only take up a portion of the page instead of running edge to edge.
Tentacle Deeps 29, 5″x7″ watercolor on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 29, detail, by Amy Crook
Above is your usual close-up of the reaching tentacles. Maybe one of these days I’ll take a photo of them reaching toward the camera, instead, just for variety. Below is the usual picture in the usual frame. Who ever thought there’d be “the usual tentacles” in your life?
Tentacle Deeps 29, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, for sale, green, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
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