Archive for the ‘Flowers, Trees and Landscapes’ Category

Sharpie Sky

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020

a marker-black sky around a blue metallic moon, with a scribbly crow, altered print by Amy Crook

Sharpie Sky, 6″x4″ inkjet ink, sharpie ink, and watercolor on metallic photo paper

In the second installment of my misprint redux, I used a big fat Sharpie to darken the sky to black like my heart. There’s a soft brushing of iridescent watercolor over the whole sky, with twinkling stars of the same blue-green to add light to the deep black.

The bird got its own treatment, scribbled shadows to deepen its silhouette, make it more solid and less of a ghost. The whole effect is quite striking, much more dramatic than its predecessor, especially when the light hits it so the ink turns matte while the moon shines.

Is this the one that needs to fly home to you?

Sharpie Sky, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the dark scribbles bringing the bird more fully into the foreground. Below, a simple black frame holds this magical sky like a window into another world.

Sharpie Sky, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
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Midnight Blue Sky

Monday, March 2nd, 2020

a watercolor painting on a metallic photo print of a blue moon, blue-black sky with copper stars, and a flying crow, by Amy Crook

Midnight Blue Sky, 5″x5″ inkjet and watercolor on metallic photo paper

Thanks to weird color results and other misprint issues, these prints won’t be making it into my Etsy shop. Instead, I gave away the best ones and used the remaining three for experimentation!

This one uses metallic blue and copper watercolor to change the sky to a swirling vortex, to turn the stars into an eerie presence, and make the crow’s eye shine balefully out at the viewer.

For anyone who likes corvids and shiny things, this is a great little remix of one of my best recent works.

Midnight Blue Sky, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the copper shine of this crow’s altered eye. Below, it’s framed and waiting for the right home to fly to.

Midnight Blue Sky, framed art by Amy Crook

Midnight Blue Sky, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
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Ash Ghost zine

Monday, February 10th, 2020

Happy Patreoniversary!

I’ve been on Patreon for 5 years now, amazing! I’ve managed to grow a lovely little community there of supporters and friends, and I’d like to invite you to join with a special offer*.

Ash Ghost zine by Amy Crook

Ash Ghost zine

I’m going to make a limited run of these little zines for my patrons! They’re made by hand, printed right here in my living room as always and lovingly assembled and stapled just for you. The unsettling short story inside uses my Ash Ghost art series as both inspiration and illustration, including a new one created just for the cover.

Every one of these will be signed and numbered, and the edition will be exclusive to my Patreon supporters. You don’t even have to buy one — everyone who is at the $10+ level in February will get one in the mail for free!

I’m also including these lovely bookmarks, which will be available on Etsy afterward (unlike the zine).

Ash Ghost bookmark set by Amy Crook

If you’re not a patron by then, you’ll have missed your window and the zine, but there’s still a bunch of great perks even at the lowest level. Become a supporter today!

Ash Ghost zine, a/p copy, by Amy Crook

*Offer ended on Feb. 29, 2020.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Card Design, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Words Words Words, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Patreon sketches for December 2019 requests

Thursday, January 30th, 2020

I’ve decided to stick with my new standard size for Patreon sketches from now on, so everyone gets a standard ACEO (artist card, edition original) aka trading card size piece of art when they make a request. Patrons also get to see exclusive photos, including cat pics, works in progress, and other such shenanigans. Plus, they get the warm feeling of contentment that they support the arts every month!

I’ve also been doing some figure sketch practice, so expect to see more actual people at some point! I’m pretty happy with how the sketches are coming out, even if I haven’t done a ton of them yet.

My commissions queue is full, so I’m working hard on clearing the decks so I can open them up again, as well as finally editing my newest book (it’s so close to done omg), and finishing up some other long-overdue projects. I don’t think it’s possible to feel caught up anymore, but I have hopes that someday I’ll have space to breathe and take on new work!

In the meantime, the January requests post is still open, if you want to join us on Patreon!

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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Spider Moon

Thursday, November 7th, 2019

an ink and watercolor painting of a spiderweb stretched between two tree branches, silhouetted against a golden harvest moon, by Amy Crook

Spider Moon, 8″x8″ ink and watercolor on paper

Another month, another Moon. This one is a golden Harvest Moon as befits the time of year, with a spider’s complex web stretched between branches just right to catch the light. The design looks just enough like an eye to give one an eerie feeling, and perhaps to make one wonder who is looking at who.

Not to mention wondering where the spider went.

Spider Moon, detail, by Amy Crook

Spider Moon, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the delicate web of silk shadowed against the strange surface of a lush golden moon. Below, the painting is framed and waiting to shed some light in your home.

Spider Moon, framed art by Amy Crook

Spider Moon, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
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Fire Season

Wednesday, November 6th, 2019

an ink painting of stark ruins poking up against an orange sky, wreathed in smoke, by Amy Crook

Fire Season, 6″x4″ ink on paper

It’s fire season here in California, and it’s been a month for ruins all around.

The beautiful golden-peach glow of the smoldering sky is hard to capture on a monitor, but the inks give a magnificently clear color in person. The charcoal grey of ink wash swoops in fluid lines to suggest some kind of burnt-out ruins, close or distant, large or small.

Birds circle above and around, giving them a sense of scale — unless it’s the birds themselves that are distant.

Fire Season, detail, by Amy Crook

Fire Season, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the shadow of a bird, the soft texture of paper and glow of the sky, and the stark jut of burnt ruins wreathed in their own smoky residue. Below, this dramatic scene is contained safely in a frame, just waiting to grace your wall.

Fire Season, framed art by Amy Crook

Fire Season, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
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Ash Ghost series

Monday, November 4th, 2019

a series of 4 ink wash paintings featuring a ghost dissolving into ash by Amy Crook

Ash, Overgrown, Legend, and Ancient, ink wash art in the Ash Ghost series by Amy Crook,
4 works, 5″x7″ ink wash on paper

This series was painted, and named, after prompts from Inktober 2019.

The upper left’s eerie ghost is the first of the Ash Ghost series: 4 ink wash paintings featuring the same mysterious and yet-unwritten legend. They get progressively more complex, filling up the space, drawing you into their story, but Ash is stark and simple.

The upper right, Overgrown, has the footsteps but no ghost that you can see. They lead up to a series of steps between two overgrown pieces of wall, vines obscuring even that hint of what used to be there. A few bits of charred wood stick up in memory of a doorframe, but the rest of the structure is lost to the mists of time.

There’s a tale waiting to be told in these images. Small details waiting to be teased out and put down, more pictures yet to come. It keeps pulling us in, luring us closer.

In Legend, the graveyard is full of mist, trees vanishing in the distance and yet, somehow, the ghost is as vivid as ever. Nothing can hide him from you, neither space nor fog, but then again, perhaps nothing can hide you from him, either.

The lower right, Ancient, is the end of our ghost story so far. It features a single ash-blackened handprint obscuring the details on a cracked headstone.

There are more questions than answers left, of course. Who is the ghost? How long has he wandered and where is he going? The headstone is there, but where is his head?

And most importantly: what does he want with you, dear reader?

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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