Archive for the ‘Daily Art’ Category
Five 1
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Five 1 by Amy Crook
This is my first foray into Artist Trading Cards (or Artist Card Edition Originals, as they’re called if you sell them), though I’ve had a pack of assorted blanks for a while now. I wasn’t sure if any of them would hold up to my method of growing salt crystals, but I decided to do a set of 5 with 5 ink spirals each (whether or not the salt pools formed), and call it, brilliantly, Five.
Have I mentioned I hate coming up with titles?
Five 1, 2.5″x3.5″ mixed media on paper, nfs (but available for trading!).
This one formed a very interesting salt crystal on one of the pools that looked almost melted, curvy and organic in a way most of them really never are.
Five 1, detail, by Amy Crook
If you’re an artist who makes ATCs of your own, and are coveting this one, let me know!
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: aceo, atc, five series, pen and ink, salt
Indiana Bob
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
Indiana Bob sketch by Amy Crook
This started as a concept sketch for a client that ended up going a different way, so I made a few important changes and cleaned it up for a Saturday sketch. I think the fedora came out quite dashing, don’t you?
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: nfs, sketch
Midnight Rain
Friday, October 7th, 2011
Midnight Rain by Amy Crook
This is a cool echo of the fiery copper from yesterday’s art. Although this is the same paint I used in Jellyfish Bloom, the bright aqua pigment sinks into the black paper, leaving a watery echo of peacock-iridescent shimmer floating on top.
The salt this time picked up some of the green from the pen I used, but it’s quite pale inside the opaque matrix of the crystals. They’re darker where the paint coats them, but everything about this piece came out subtle and ghostly. Appropriate for Halloween, I think.
Midnight Rain, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper.
Midnight Rain, detail, by Amy Crook
When the sunlight hits this one, the iridescent paint goes purple on the paper in lovely contrast to the rich teal you see where it coats the salt crystals. From another angle, it looks more blue, as you can see below in the framed photo.
Midnight Rain, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black, for sale, iridescent, pen and ink, salt, teal, watercolor
Copper Midnight
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
Copper Midnight by Amy Crook, $323
This is the first of a pair of pieces I made together using Arches Cover Black paper. I love that this velvety black paper is fade-proof, because it’s not dyed but instead turns black from a chemical reaction set off in the paper. It’s art with science! Not my science, but still.
I made salt circles with my trusty orange pen, which barely picked up at all into the opaque white crystals this time. Then I used metallic copper watercolor for the ripples around each little pool, and copper gel pen for the signature, making an eerie monochrome piece very appropriate for the Halloween season.
Copper Midnight, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $323, framed, with free shipping.
Below you can see how the iridescent paint catches the light and glows with shimmery copper.
Copper Midnight, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Here you can see just one salt pool, with the copper coating the salt on one side and making it look like it’s almost made of some strange metallic crystal instead of mundane salt. I’ve always liked how each little ring of salt is its own tiny henge of sorts, big crystals rising up around the scattered few in the center.
Copper Midnight, detail 2, by Amy Crook
When the sunlight isn’t hitting them, the places where the paint was thinnest almost sink completely back into the black paper like ghosts, though it seems to float above the paper where it’s thickest. You can see it in its frame, below, with my iPhone for scale.
Copper Midnight, framed, by Amy Crook, $323
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black, copper, for sale, iridescent, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 17
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 17 by Amy Crook
Yet more tentacles for Tuesday! I used a pure wash of zoisite watercolor, and its granular quality dried in a rather squamous, scale-like texture, subtle and matte with a quality to the paint almost like pastel. The dusty paint mixed in with the pure Sharpie ink of the tentacles, softening the sharp blacks, but I wanted a bit more so I took a grey brush pen and added in a second layer of tentacles behind the first.
Tentacle Deeps 17, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper.
I have to admit, I think every single one of these looks cool photographed from this angle. Plus, you can really see the texture of the paint and paper, here.
Tentacle Deeps 17, detail, by Amy Crook
I always like how they look like they’re rising up from some other dimension held within the frame, too. What can I say, I’m easily pleased by tentacles.
Tentacle Deeps 17, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, sharpie, squamous, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Sunset Postcard
Monday, October 3rd, 2011
Sunset Postcard by Amy Crook, $222
This watercolor is actually from five years ago. It managed to escape the general posting of old art last year, but I decided to frame and scan it when I ran across it the other day when I was framing some other art.
When I was younger I swear I must have painted dozens of sunsets, usually with skeletal winter trees in front, the black branches framed by colored light. I don’t have many of those left, so this one is very nostalgic for me. My favorite part is along the line of the sun itself, where some of the red has bled onto the sun the way sometimes the sky seems to waver around the edges as the sun sinks below the horizon.
Sunset Postcard, approx. 6″x4″ watercolor on handmade postcard, $222, framed, with free shipping.
I floated the postcard on a black mat within a larger frame, which makes the vivid sunset colors glow out from the darkness.
Sunset Postcard, framed watercolor by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, handmade postcard, watercolor
Watson sketch
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
Watson pen sketch by Amy Crook
Just a little pen-and-ink portrait — I’m practicing a few things about observation and not being able to erase. I did a little tiny bit of tinkering in Photoshop, I will admit, but in the end it only sort of looks like the character. Which, really, given that I’ve got little practice doing portraits or working in pen-and-ink, is pretty much okay.
Maybe the next one will be more awesome.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: nfs, pen and ink, sherlock, sketch, watson
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