Archive for the ‘Daily Art’ Category
Words on Wednesday & the New Art Week
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
Don’t worry, Tentacle Tuesdays are safe! I’m just switching things up a little to give you some posts with actual, relevant stuff in them besides just the pretty. Well, and the tentacley.
Ahem. Anyway, after talking to several of you over the course of the past few months, I’ve discovered that you want to know more about how I make art and how being an artist fits into my life. I’ve got a few things planned including stuff about my studio and my living room which is also my other studio, about how I choose what to paint and what to paint with, and probably at least one post about my cats. Because this is the internet, so I can post about my cats.
Tentatively, the new schedule is going to be:
- Monday, painting or drawing
(often this will be a moon, because New Moon Mondays really amuses me) - Tentacle Tuesdays
- Words on Wednesday
- Thursday, painting or drawing
- Friday, painting or drawing
(because often I have two or three things I want to post together) - Saturday Morning Cartoons
(formerly Weeble Weds and, let’s face it, an awesome childhood memory) - Sunday Sketches
I’m not sure how I’ll feel about not having a day off, but we’ll find out, won’t we? I didn’t want to cut back to only two paintings a week, because I’ve been painting more than that lately even without the tentacles (which I’m several weeks ahead on! So many tentacles…) and it just gets hard to keep track of what’s next to post.
If there’s something you’ve been wondering about, this is a good place to ask. I’d love to have more conversation in my comments, seriously, so really feel free to ask anywhere and I’ll try to answer. Oh, and hey, happy Leap Day!
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: schedule
Tentacle Deeps 27
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 27 by Amy Crook
We have ghostly tentacles writhing against a textured wash of sunset red, orange and gold for our Tentacle Tuesday. I really love all the texture and detail on this one, so I made a wallpaper to share. I make these sort of huge and not particularly specific on the size so that you can just tell your computer to fill the screen and it won’t matter if some of one edge or another gets cropped. I also make the tentacles go left to right because that’s what works for me on my screen, I almost always have certain windows open so I mostly see a few little stripes of background at the left and right edges.
I really like the way the textured paper here created amazing edges on the wash, and then on top of that I used salt in the more traditional manner to create the almost flamelike blossoms of paint in the background. I was so in love with it, I decided to paint the tentacles in washed-out, transparent black to let the background really show through. The smaller, fainter tentacles give it a sense of looking out over a field of them, almost like seaweed rising up from the ocean bottom.
Tentacle Deeps 27, 5.25″x7″ watercolor on paper.
This isn’t quite small enough for a standard frame, and I haven’t yet matted it properly into a larger one for photography, but I suspect you’ve seen enough framed tentacles by now to know the drill. Instead, enjoy the spooky bottom-up detail shot.
Tentacle Deeps 27, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: orange, red, salt, sunset, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Golden Moon
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Golden Moon, watercolor and salt painting by Amy Crook
Two of my favorite pieces at the Endgame show have been bought, so I took this one and Violet Midnight 2 over there to replace the sold pieces on the wall. Then I realized I’m so far behind in posting that I hadn’t even shown it to you guys here on the site, oops.
I used a gorgeous golden yellow paint to make these spirals, and then added the salt while they were still wet. You can really see how the salt around the “stars” is yellower than the white aura I added to the moon later, sans paint. I like this one because it makes me think of moonrise, of looking up into the sky with the low, yellow moon hanging just off to one side of your vision, rather than taking over the whole show.
It’s bigger than my usual, too, 10″x8″ instead of the smaller size, which gives room for the smaller, saltless star-spirals that I put into the background. The piece is really simple but it’s got a lot of depth for me because it took several sessions to paint all the details, and spent at least two days just growing salt crystals. Each of these salt pieces is part art and part experiment for me, so when I’m working on them I tend to think a lot about the technical aspects and let the aesthetics work themselves out almost meditatively in the spacing, size and color choices.
Golden Moon, 10″x8″ salt and watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Golden Moon, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can really see how much whiter the salt is without the paint adulterating it. I love the way this shot came out enough I even made you guys a wallpaper of it. And by you I mean me, of course. Below, I’ve zoomed in on just one pair of stars, so you can see how sparkly and three-dimensional they really are. I actually find it pretty funny that I’ve started making a lot of art that shimmers, glitters and sparkles, since in my real life I’m the least-sparkly person you’ll meet with my unchanging jewelry and boring black t-shirts.
Golden Moon, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And finally, you can see it in a frame! The shot’s a little dark, but that’s because black paper behind glass is basically a mirror, also known as a huge pain in my butt to photograph.
Golden Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, for sale, moon, salt, spirals, stars, watercolor, yellow
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There Wolf
Saturday, February 25th, 2012
There Wolf, sketch by Amy Crook
Werewolf? There wolf!
What? You knew I was a nerd.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: coloring book, nfs, pen and ink, sketch
Blue-Green Spirals
Friday, February 24th, 2012
Blue-Green Spirals, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
And here’s the last of the Spirals Trio, the blue-green ones that don’t overlap at all. The two darker shades of green are nearly the same here, though there’s a little more variation in real life. Blue-green shades are really the hardest to reproduce electronically, they always end up muddy or too much in one or the other direction. In this one I tried to let the spirals really dance together without putting one atop the other, so they swirl and snuggle and intertwine instead.
Blue-Green Spirals, 5″x7″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Spirals Trio, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, blue, green, japanese watercolor, nfs, sold, spirals, spirals trio, triptych
Potterly Love
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Potterly Love, cartoon by Amy Crook
Is it James Potter and little Harry, or grown-up Harry and little James Sirius? In my mind it’s a little of both, James and Harry sharing a moment of fatherly love from one generation to the next. I even gave them Gryffindor-themed colors, with warm baby yellow and bright fatherly red.
I have to admit, my favorite part about drawing Harry Potter is the hair, which is always a fun, scribbly mess. Baby hair is just a little different, wispier and more staticky while being just as much of a mess as dad’s infamous mop.
Potterly Love, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper.
Potterly Love, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: baby, copic marker, etsy, father, for sale, Harry Potter, pen and ink, son
1 Comment »
Blue-Violet Spirals
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Blue-Violet Spirals, abstract art by Amy Crook
A companion to Monday’s piece, this one overlaps the one big purple spiral that’s barely visible in the background with a play of lighter ones in bluer tones. The lightest is a lovely periwinkle, and the three colors together (and really this whole series) reminds me forcefully of my crayon box from childhood. The pure tones of this paint scan horribly, though really the dark purple really does sink into the black paper to become barely visible the way it is here. You can see the play of shapes better in the bigger version of the scan.
Blue-Violet Spirals, 7″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
You can see the color better in its frame below despite the glare, especially the darker background spiral.
Spirals Trio, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, blue, japanese watercolor, nfs, purple, sold, spirals, spirals trio, triptych, violet
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