Archive for the ‘Flowers, Trees and Landscapes’ Category
Midnight Sprout Bookmark
Monday, June 3rd, 2013
Midnight Sprout bookmark
by Amy Crook
It’s Bookmark Week! This is the time when I take things I’ve doodled onto scraps left over from cutting or tearing paper down to size, and sell them as bookmarks so anyone can have their own wee original bit of Amy art. My newsletter people got to see the bookmarks last week, so there’s a few that are already sold, but I’m starting the week with one that you can still take home.
This little sprout is struggling up in the moonlight, trying to make the most of its cold light. The paint is matte and darkly colored, but you can pick out the little sprout at the right angle. It’s like a secret!
Midnight Sprout bookmark, 2″x5″ watercolor on paper.
Midnight Sprout bookmark, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the way the sunlight illuminates the dark colors, so you can see the deep green and midnight blue, and even the little bits of detail and shadow on the sprout. Below, you can see it hanging out with a nearly-matching hardcover book, so you can get an idea of the size.
Midnight Sprout bookmark, with book, by Amy Crook
(book not included, book happy in its current home)
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bookmark, buy a bookmark, for sale, japanese watercolor
Birdwatching
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
Birdwatching by Amy Crook
I’ve been working on this in amongst the Monster paintings, starting with a rather banal watercolor layer and adding in bold scribbles, shimmery iridescent highlights and even some pencil shading. I’ve grown fond of the odd perspective, of peering at the herons through the grasses, and catching a glimpse of both halves of this couple.
Birdwatching, 6″x4″ watercolor, iridescent Japanese watercolor, pen & ink, and pencil on Fluid watercolor paper.
Birdwatching, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a bit of the golden wash at the very edge of the sky, and a sheen off several bits of iridescent paint in several colors, from the soft gold along the beak to the blue in the feathers and silvery clouds. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, making it seem more than ever like a peek into some hidden natural wonder.
Birdwatching, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: bird, expressionism, heron, iridescent, nfs, pen and ink, pencil, sold, watercolor
Gibbous Moon
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
Gibbous Moon, watercolor by Amy Crook
It’s Earth Day, so of course I contrarily have a moon for you. Curling silvery mist wreaths upward, trying to reach the moon that’s a lot farther away than it looks, while blue stars shimmer in the far distance. The moon itself is just a little warm and golden, with the color bleeding strangely into the dark, making you wonder just what’s going on up there. Eerily beautiful.
Gibbous Moon, 7″x5″ watercolor and iridescent watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Gibbous Moon, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the moon itself, warm and slightly sinister where it floats in the middle distance. Below, a few curls of iridescent mist swim into your view.
Gibbous Moon, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And finally, you can see it slipped into a frame and hanging out on my writing desk with my iPhone, so you can see how it looks in the wild.
Gibbous Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, fairytale sky, for sale, iridescent, moon, spirals, watercolor
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Crows at Dusk
Friday, April 19th, 2013
Crows at Dusk, watercolor skyscape by Amy Crook
I’ve been indulging myself in the vice of instructional art videos on YouTube lately, and while I’ve learned a lot of ways to make some really awful art, I have gleaned a few interesting techniques. I found I guy making really ugly skies who was using a specific technique to make moons, and so I stole his idea and came up with this. It’s simple, but it has a nice dreamy, hazy feel to it as the crows rise up and vanish in the distance.
Crows at Dusk, 6″x4″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Crows at dusk, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the moon, though something about the angle and the paper’s texture smoothed away the shadows on the surface. Below, you can see it in a frame, hanging out with my iPhone and feather quill pen.
Crows at Dusk, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals
Tags: crow, for sale, moon, watercolor
Ghost Moon
Monday, March 4th, 2013
Ghost Moon by Amy Crook
I can’t honestly remember now which came first, the Ghost Spirals Bookmark or the trees in this piece. I definitely painted them on the same day, but then I came back to this later and added in the moon, and then in a third pass I added iridescent blue stars with the purple meteor, a shine of subtle iridescent green to the treetops, and silver on the moon.
I’m sometimes torn about using so much iridescent and metallic paint. On the one hand, it feels a bit gimmicky (and can’t be made into prints effectively), but on the other hand I think the pieces are more beautiful with the shimmer and shine. And since the real point of my art is to put more beautiful things into the world, I’ve decided to go with what feels right.
Ghost Moon, 7″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Ghost Moon, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a bit of the green shimmer on the trees, the silver shine of the moon, and the blue and purple stars, shooting and otherwise. Below, I’ve got the piece in a frame, so you can see how it sizes up to my iPhone.
Ghost Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black paper, for sale, iridescent, japanese watercolor, moon, shooting star, spirals, tree, watercolor
1 Comment »
Pink Roses Bookmark
Thursday, February 28th, 2013
Pink Roses Bookmark
by Amy Crook
I started this bookmark by doodling long, slightly uneven stripes of gold glitter pen, and then I took my pink and green and made fat spiral roses all through the gold, 13 in total. Perfect for keeping your spot in a romance novel.
Pink Roses Bookmark, 1″x4″ pen & ink and glitter gel pen on cardstock, nfs (sold).
Pink Roses Bookmark, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the bright pink and shining gold up close and personal. Below, you can see the wee bookmark hanging out on the hardcover book. I think it prefers paperbacks, myself.
Pink Roses Bookmark, with book, by Amy Crook
(book not included, so treat your new bookmark to something special)
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: bookmark, comic backing board, glitter gel pen, pen and ink, spirals
Filigree Moon 3
Friday, February 22nd, 2013
Filigree Moon 3 by Amy Crook
This is sort of a Slytherin moon in silver and green, with a few green glittery spirals hiding in among the silver as well as a green halo around the whole moon. Although you can’t see them in the scan above, there’s little flecks of silver and green glitter in the black sky background like distant, tiny stars that catch the light at just the right angle.
Filigree Moon 3, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Filigree Moon 3, detail, by Amy Crook
You can see not only the green glitter in with the silver, but a few little glimmering stars out in the black velvet space.
Filigree Moon 3, work in progress part 1, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the moon before it got its decorative filigree. I love the subtle textures as the green and white paint mixed and moved around on the paper, making formations like real moon geography. Below, you can see the silver spirals about halfway done, the paper angled to catch the light and really make the glitter shine.
Filigree Moon 3, work in progress part 2, by Amy Crook
And finally we have the framed photo, showing how subtle the filigree can be from some angles. Despite the slightly odd angle of the torn paper, it fits perfectly into a standard 5″ square frame.
Filigree Moon 3, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, filigree, for sale, glitter gel pen, green, moon, silver, watercolor
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