Archive for the ‘Daily Art’ Category
7 Spirals
Thursday, December 1st, 2011

7 Spirals by Amy Crook
I’ve noticed that the dye-based inks I use on some of the salt pieces will fade in strong sunlight, so I’ve been experimenting with using watercolors to dye the salt instead, with mixed results. The color I used in this painting came out clear and strong, making sparkling fuchsia salt crystals.
Even though there’s 15 salt pools, I chose to name it after the purple spirals that fill the white space in loose, haphazard shapes. The spirals are actually made by mixing the pink pigment in the inner ring with the teal pigment in the outer rings, giving surprising violets with unusual tones and highlights where the pigments separated.
7 Spirals, 5″x7″ pen & ink, salt, and watercolor on paper.

7 Spirals, detail, by Amy Crook
You can really see the rich colors in this detail shot, above, and the subtle sparkle of the salt in the waning autumn light in my apartment. Below, the paint seems almost to glow in its matte black frame.

7 Spirals, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, pink, purple, salt, teal, watercolor
Weeble Ninja
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Weeble Ninja is Unimpressed With Your Shenanigans
Totally unimpressed. Pencil and cheap watercolor on sketch paper.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: nfs, ninja, sketch, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 20
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 20 by Amy Crook
Usually for these I paint the background and then put in the tentacles, but this time I decided to go about it the other way. The watercolor wash didn’t disturb the Sharpie in the foreground at all, though it did give the tentacles a distinct red tint. It did soften the grey pen-and-ink tentacles in the background so they look a bit more surreal.
I still need to properly frame this one because of the odd size, but rest assured, like all of the Tentacle Deeps series, this painting will ship framed to its future home.
Tentacle Deeps 20, 4″x8″ mixed media on paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black, brush pen, for sale, red, sharpie, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Genuine Pink
Monday, November 28th, 2011
It’s quite hard to capture the rich mineral color of the Rhodonite Pink watercolor, which isn’t quite as bright as it shows in the detail image below, but has a dusky quality that’s overly pronounced in the scan above. The salt is fancy pink Himalayan salt, and the orange-pink minerals in it tended to sink and gather at the center of each pool.
Pink isn’t my favorite color, but I have to admit I’m fascinated by all of the genuine mineral paints from this company, which have complex and subtle undertones, and I think this one goes well with the unusual tint from the pink salt.
Genuine Pink, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
I think the framed image gets the best feel for the paint colour, but the salt looks quite like it does in the detail photo, above.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: pink, salt, watercolor
Like Mycroft Loves His Umbrella
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Like Mycroft Loves His Umbrella by Amy Crook
I know it’s a bit early for most people to be thinking about Valentines, but us handcrafters need extra time to get our swag together. I’m thinking of doing a line this year of “I love you like X loves Y” cards — some, like this one, of the dorky fangirl variety, and some of a more geeky bent.
Plus, the image of Mycroft smooching his DI under his favourite umbrella was one I just couldn’t resist.
Like Mycroft Loves His Umbrella, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper. Get cards and prints at Etsy.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: copic marker, lestrade, mycroft, pen and ink, sherlock, slash
1 Comment »
Tentacle Umbrella
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
My poor lovely parasol is in need of repair that I’m not sure I can find anywhere to give it, so when I found a site that made one-off custom umbrellas, well, I couldn’t resist. I originally did the design to be another fabric at Spoonflower, but the file was 3x too big for their uploader — oops — so I shrunk it down and used it for the panels of this umbrella instead.
The photos do a bad job of showcasing the way the background fades from light near the tip to dark at the edges, and of course the writhing purple-black tentacles work well with the slanting, rain-like linework. If you look at it up close, you can see that the lines were scanned from hand-drawn pen lines, and the tentacles have that special Sharpie marker feel to them. My poor computer cried bitter tears when I was putting together the full-resolution, layered file in Photoshop, heh.
ETA: I’ve ordered a Very Limited Edition of 3 more of these, and two are already spoken for. If you’d like the last one for $40 +shipping, let me know! All sold!
Categories: Daily Art, Tentacles
Tags: tentacles, umbrella
2 Comments »
Horizon bookmark
Monday, November 21st, 2011

Horizon bookmark by Amy Crook
This little bookmark is a relative of my larger piece, On the Horizon. I’ve been field-testing it and actually the salt crystals are really there to stay. The salt pools are just shallow enough that they don’t scratch up the page or overly stuff the book, and the paper it’s on is a nice sturdy watercolor paper.
Horizon Bookmark, 1.5″x7″ mixed media on paper.

Horizon bookmark, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, bookmark, buy a bookmark, for sale, pen and ink, salt, stars, watercolor
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