Archive for the ‘Floating Gallery’ Category
Meet Me on Saturn
Tuesday, March 4th, 2014
Meet Me on Saturn, watercolor by Amy Crook
If you don’t know what movie I’m referencing here, get thee to Netflix* and watch Beetlejuice!
I decided I wanted to paint some stripey tentacles, so I got out my watercolors and popped in the DVD for inspiration. I decided on the off-color sky with its almost greenish blues and brighter golds after seeing the ghosts ending up on Saturn, and since that’s where the stripey sandworms come from, it seemed appropriate for a title.
I am especially pleased with the way the two outer tentacles are meeting up over the curl of the third. Are they parents and child, all part of the same creature, or is it just a third wheel?
The ways of tentacles are mysterious.
Meet Me on Saturn, 8″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Meet Me on Saturn, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the curl of tentacle, and the details of the delicate shading on and around it. Below, I’ve got the tentacles in a frame. They’re currently in my living room, where I can see them every day.
Meet Me on Saturn, framed art by Amy Crook
*Not that I have any idea if Netflix has it.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: beetlejuice, for sale, stripes, tentacles, watercolor
Maleficent
Monday, March 3rd, 2014
Maleficent, abstract art by Amy Crook
Maleficent has a texture like layers of scales carved by the pen into the painted surface. The painstaking detail invites closer examination, especially in the different ways in which the paint mixed with the red ink to add an extra layer of color along with the surface finish.
This painting is named after the villain’s dragon form in the original Disney Sleeping Beauty, majestic and powerful but still, in her heart, flawed. You can see that flaw under the scales, almost the exact shape of the crack in the universe from Doctor Who.
Some of you followed along on Instagram during the week I spent working on this piece (hi!), so now you can see it in all its strange, obsessive glory. I keep wanting to run my finger over it, but I resist, because I don’t want to turn my fingers purple, or ruin the painting by accident.
Maleficent, 6″x4″ pen & ink and Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Maleficent, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the texture, and the furrows the pen made as it pressed into the painted surface. I had to re-draw some of the arcs half a dozen times to get the effect I wanted, because the pen was constantly getting clogged with paint it picked up from the paper. Below, you can see it in a frame with my phone. It’s wee! So wee, and so painstakingly detailed.
Maleficent, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: black paper, japanese watercolor, nfs, pen and ink, purple, sold, watercolor
Birthday Timey-Wimey
Sunday, March 2nd, 2014
Birthday Timey-Wimey, a Doctor Who parody comic by Amy Crook
The tenth Doctor is happy to see that you’ve survived another year of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff. He’s got his usual hands-in-pockets deshabille going, with his mad hair to top it all off, and he’s got the TARDIS all warmed up for some birthday shenanigans.
You can get him on a card at my Etsy shop.
Birthday Timey-Wimey, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.
Doctor Who birthday card by Amy Crook on Etsy
Categories: Card Design, Floating Gallery, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: copic marker, doctor who, etsy, for sale, pen and ink
Valentine Retrospective
Saturday, February 8th, 2014
February retrospective of art by Amy Crook
Since I didn’t have any comics for this month’s Floating Gallery, I decided to go find a few pieces of art that I thought would make lovely gifts for the Valentine in your life. There’s hearts, a romantic moon, and a sweet puppy, plus tentacles, spirals, salt, and all the things that make my art, well, mine.
Categories: Floating Gallery
Tags: floating gallery
Traverse
Friday, February 7th, 2014
Traverse, watercolor by Amy Crook
For such a small painting there is a sense of vast space and infinite possibility in this little slice of time. The moment it captures feels like a cusp, a step into some unknown future. It’s a visual reminder to take risks, step out, to choose a direction and see what lies over the next bit of horizon.
Traverse, 6″x4″ watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Traverse, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the figure, her details washed away by the brightness she’s facing into. Below, you can see the painting in a frame, with the figure reflected in the shiny surface of my phone.
Traverse, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: nfs, sold, watercolor
Island
Thursday, February 6th, 2014
Island, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
I think paintings are hardest to talk about when I really adore them. This one is such an exquisite combination of tiny details and subtle colors created both by deliberate artistic choice and by random chance that I’m ridiculously in love with it.
The paper is soft, both in texture and its creamy color, and the paints are all matte shades of real minerals, except for the places where there’s unexpected bursts of red or even sun-catching bits of green iridescence. The shape suggests an island without being any specific one, with its noodling coastlines and the surf creeping up all around it. The green is rich and deep and mysterious, inviting the viewer to look for hidden detail.
Island, 10″x8″ watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Island, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a very close look at some of the detail, in an area with a subtle wash of red hiding under the green, and a tiny patch of shimmering brightness that only shows itself in sunlight, like a lake hidden in deep jungles. Below, the painting’s in a frame, looking even more like some forgotten map.
Island, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, duochrome, for sale, green, map, watercolor
Backbone
Wednesday, February 5th, 2014
Backbone, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
Back in November, the same painting session that gave me the beginnings of both Exit Strategy and The Colour Out of Space produced the background for this. I did some more with the background before letting it sit for two months, and finally a few weeks ago I figured out what I wanted to do with it.
I actually used thinned-out titanium white paint in a fountain pen to draw these little shapes rather than painting them, a technique I practiced first on a couple of this month’s bookmarks.
The sinuous lines of vertebrae don’t quite follow the soft shapes they wind through, but they are informed by them. It’s hard to tell if this is one very long creature or several; if they’re suspended in water or mist or even fossilized; if they’re from something natural, unnatural, or even supernatural.
Backbone, 6″x4″ watercolor and Japanese watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Backbone, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see an extremely close look at a dozen of the many vertebrae twining through the painting. Below, the painting is tucked in a frame, its mysteries safely contained.
Backbone, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: bones, for sale, japanese watercolor, pen and paint, skeleton, watercolor
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