Archive for the ‘Flowers, Trees and Landscapes’ Category

May 2021 Patreon Sketch Cards

Wednesday, July 28th, 2021

Another day, another bunch of Patreon sketch cards! I got some nifty black mixed media ones in, and tried that out with my shiny paints for the cocktails on the bottom left. I try to have fun with my sketches whenever I can, y’know?

From the top left:

Amber’s April showers/May flowers
a summer bat for The Other Amy
Nott the Brave for Eric
Wally the Nonbinary Welsh Walrus for Booskerdu
Cocktails for Jefferson
Kim’s new job ft. books
and 40s music for Roxanne B, with my personal favorite song from the era, “Swingin’ on a Star.”

Carry some moonbeams off in a jar, darlings!

Categories: Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bat, black paper, book, copic marker, duochrome, ink wash, iridescent watercolor, pen and ink, walrus, watercolor, yupo

Waning

Monday, July 19th, 2021

Waning, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper

This misprint had an alignment issue that made it all sky and no earth. I couldn’t resist painting in the very end of twilight in rich blue and fading violet. The moon is a special iridescent paint that looks white at some angles and lavender at others. The tree has some intriguing physical texture, painting over with soft-body acrylic paint, and its details were extended into a network of lacy growth.

There’s a few little birds in the sky as well, hidden mostly behind the mist of tiny dots that might be fireflies or snowflakes or even a light rain reflecting moonlight at the viewer.

Every part of this artwork got a touch of new life, from the waning gibbous moon to the color-washed streaks in the sky.

Waning, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the way the paint shines, the moon going purple and the tree’s texture picking up the golden sunlight. Below, this piece is in a frame and happily showing itself off for you.

Waning, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: acrylic, blue, crow, horizions, inkjet print, interference, mixed media, moon, more cowbell, nfs, primatek, purple, sold, tree, watercolor

Artifacts of the Resolution

Wednesday, July 14th, 2021

a mixed media painting of a tree, crows, and a ghost

Artifacts of the Resolution, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper

Making prints work out is always an interesting challenge with a new program and a new printer.

Instead of recycling this low-res misprint, I used my mineral-based watercolors to paint over it. I added the cloudy russet sunset and gave the tree texture, body, and new details. All of the birds stayed at their original resolution, which gives the painting its name.

Look, I can’t be expected to resist a pun that good.

Artifacts of the Resolution, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see up close the motion-blur of the branches next to the clear pixelation on the birds, as though they’re visiting from some other, lower-resolution reality. Below, the painting is resting in a frame, waiting to be sent to someone new.

Artifacts of the Resolution, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: crow, ghost, horizions, inkjet print, mixed media, more cowbell, nfs, primatek, print, sold, tree, watercolor

April 2021 Patreon Sketch Cards

Wednesday, July 7th, 2021

Having standardized the sketch size to these pre-cut ATC/ACEO cards makes my life so much easier — they come in vellum for drawing, watercolor paper, and some cool new stuff like Yupo synthetic substrate. It gives me a lot of room for play! Which I did with several of these that weren’t for anyone specific, heh.

6 sketch cards by Amy Crook

From the top left:

Do Good Recklessly, a recent tumblr meme
Capybaras for Rebecca S
A wee Concentric doodle to play with some of my new watercolors
Bats and Mushrooms and Sun and idk man, sometimes you just gotta paint mushrooms I guess.
Purple dragon for Andria, who wanted to have a golden hoard of their very own, which was pretty easy since they are very wee
Amy B asked for a kitten and got a blobcat with a Christmas tree tail, which is a feature of kittens of a certain age that I find delightful. It has brought you a mouse toy like the mighty hunter it is, and is all fluffed up about it.

4 sketch cards by Amy Crook

From the top left:

Amber asked for “seasonal (holiday) allergies” and I may have chosen to tease her husband.
A is for Amy wants to play with her yupo paper some more.
Roxanne asked for Falcon & the Winter Solider and apparently this is what my brain wanted.
Rey asked for “conditionally huggable” and of course I had to draw a hedgehog.

I love my Patreon supporters with all my heart — thanks, you guys! You’re the best.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Completed Commissions, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Illuminated Alphabet, People, Figures and Faces, Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bat, capybara, cat, concentric, copic marker, dragon, duochorome, hedgehog, iridescent, mcu, pen and ink, primatek, watercolor, word art

Yupo sketch cards

Tuesday, May 25th, 2021

I got a new substrate to try, Yupo, which is an interesting synthetic that comes in a transluscent thin sheet, a more normal sheet, and a fat cardstock, all very smooth and non-absorbent. Basically the opposite of watercolor paper! I got a package of sketch card sized pads, and did some non-request sketch experiments on them in various media.

5 sketch cards with watercolor on yupo paper

5 sketch cards by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: aceo, cat, counting crows, crow, duochrome, salt, watercolor, yupo

End of 2020 Patreon Sketches, part 2

Tuesday, March 16th, 2021

Another big batch of sketches done, getting us caught up through October, with one little January request sneaking in because reasons. Corvid reasons.

Lenin & Carmilla down the left side for Dr. Tags, and then on the right we have Persevere for Rey, “Mandalorian feels” for Kim, and vampire bats for Amy B (most sold)

Espurr for Eric, crow in snow for Andria, the things in Jeff’s skull, Julius Ceasar and the Very Pointy Day for Dr. Tags, and Relax for Rey (most sold)

Categories: Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: bat, carmilla, cat, colored pencil, copic marker, crow, lenin, patreon, pen and ink, pencil, pokemon, star wars, watercolor, word art

Dreamlands 3

Monday, September 7th, 2020

Dreamlands 3, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper

Another piece that’s been in my Work in Progress pile for an embarrassingly long time, I took this city away from reality immediately and never brought it back.

From Mondrian to fungus, the buildings and their washed-out colors spring from a number of sources, including the usual Gherkin-inspired glass edifice.

I couldn’t tell you who or what lives here, perhaps somewhere close to Ulthar or well beyond the cursed plains of Leng. But you could probably tell your own stories about it, if you tried.

Dreamlands 3, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the play of dim color on the buildings and in the sky. Below, it’s been framed, like a peek through a looking glass into another world.