Archive for the ‘Daily Art’ Category
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
Badlands, now (left) and then (right)
Fugitive dyes, migrating materials, slow-moving chemical reactions — sometimes art changes over time. What’s a girl to do?
Well, I just try to sit back and enjoy it, honestly. When the salt formations in Badlands (above) began to fade from pale pink to white, I did move it out of the sun (oops), and now I’ve been thinking of ways to sneak some pink back in. Which is hilarious, because I remember being all baffled by what to do with the pink salt in the first place, since pink is so not my color. How far we’ve come!
I will try to warn a buyer if I think a piece will change over time, so they don’t get disappointed, but sometimes it comes as a surprise. If you remember my series of hibsicus tea paintings, it’s been very illuminating to pull them out of their storage drawer and find that the color-changing reactions have continued to (very slowly) continue to change colors as time goes on. You can see how the tea has faded to a more subtle color in the whorls of Hibiscus Green below.
Hibiscus Green, now (left) and then (right)
Mixing materials in wacky experiments also sometimes has long-term results. While the copper paint from these two little pots seems to have stayed where it was put, the salt in Midnight Rain (below) has meandered out to the edges of the iridescence and created a different — but to my mind no less appealing — set of shapes and colors.
Midnight Rain, now (left) and then (right)
All of these changes are really subtle, as you can see from the photos (not to mention the inherent dangers in color correcting with Photoshop). In a way, I see it as the art continuing merrily on its way without me, and giving me extra bonus results that I never expected.
What do you think, how would you feel if a piece of art you bought changed itself to something else, right before your eyes?
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: changes, hibiscus, info, salt
Tentacle Deeps 30
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 30 by Amy Crook
I actually took the time to trim this cool green cardstock down to size, so it fits just fine in a 4″x6″ frame. I realize I have a ton of frames that size, from when I was trying to get the handmade postcards to fit. I finally gave up and started matting them into a bigger frame, so I’ve got a bunch of extra frames that obviously need tentacles.
The background is pure zoisite green, granulated and squamous just the way I like it. The foreground tentacles are a blue-black that gets bluer as the tentacles “recede” into the translucent background layers. I like the extra dimension the piece gets from colored paper and colored tentacles as well as the usual colored background, the whole thing is sort of eerie and otherworldly.
Also, green.
Tentacle Deeps 30, 6″x4″ watercolor on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 30, detail, by Amy Crook
The color in the above close-up shot is a bit off, my camera keeps trying to add red to correct the green, but it’s still cool. Below you can see it with my iPhone for scale. I always think it’s neat seeing the art reflected in the surface of the phone, even if I don’t love the reflections of the room in the glass on the artwork.
Tentacle Deeps 30, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, crane and co, for sale, green, studio gallery, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
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
« Or Head Back That Way
More Art This Way »
