Archive for the ‘Flowers, Trees and Landscapes’ Category
2011 Starcycles Calendar Cover
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
2011 Starcycles Calendar, cover by Amy Crook
Way back in 1999, Georgia Stathis first approached me to take over the design on her then-print astrology dayplanner-style calendar. We’ve skipped a few years here and there, but this year I painted several images in watercolor and then put them together with Photoshop to create this dreamy image for Year of the Rabbit. Georgia’s 2011 Calendar is available as a pdf download, or she’ll print and bind them for an additional charge. You could even print your own and have it hole-punched to fit in a Dayplanner, if you wanted.
I’m just starting to get a feel for using watercolors, so this was a great excuse for me to get them out and experiment, knowing I could fix any issues in Photoshop later. My favorite part is the subtle “rabbit in the moon” version of the moon’s shadows popular in Chinese mythology.
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: nfs, rabbit, starcycles, watercolor
Goth Christmas Tree
Monday, November 15th, 2010
Goth Christmas Tree by Amy Crook
It’s that time of year, and I’ve been working on holiday card designs. In addition to my usual stock of Lovecraftian horrors, I decided to do a cheerfully morbid Christmas tree. Skulls adorn the branches and it’s topped with an eye-tipped vine. There’s a bloodstained package among the gifts under the tree, and the curly, swirly, tentacle-ish branches are reaching down to help distribute them.
You can pick up some of these cards for your own holidays at Etsy, or buy the original below.
Goth Christmas Tree, 5″x7″ pen and ink on watercolor paper.
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: christmas, for sale, holiday card, pen and ink
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Bronze Roses
Saturday, November 13th, 2010
3 Bronze Roses, detail 1, by Amy Crook
I made these roses using the lost wax casting method; each one started life as a dried long-stemmed rose, which I dipped in wax and made ready for casting. The process only worked about 25% of the time, because of the long thin stem the metal had to travel to get to the solid flower, and the leaves almost never cast.
I left the bits of flash and other imperfections on them as part of their character, the human element intervening in nature long enough to create these haunting pieces. The element of randomness is one I enjoy exploring in my art, and you can really see how it gave these roses a new life.
They get their color from a chemical patina, another process involving water and fire that has slowly evolved over time thanks to exposure to the air and handling.
I’ve sold all of the half dozen or so that I originally made, but maybe someday I’ll be in a position to create more.
3 Bronze Roses by Amy Crook
Categories: Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: bronze, nfs, rose, sold
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Sunset
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
Sunset by Amy Crook
Over a decade of doing the Starcycles Calendar off and on, I’ve gotten to create a variety of gorgeous art. In 2003, we tried out a wall calendar format, and I created this simple drawing using pastels on rich midnight blue paper. The drawing is very loose and I’ve always liked the way everything in the sky is reflected in the vast ocean below.
Sunset, 22.5″x19″ pastel on colored pastel paper
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, pastel, starcycles
The Tree Breathes
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
The Tree Breathes, detail, by Amy Crook
This is another one-of-a-kind print done using my tiny etching plates. I almost forgot completely about it, ironically because it’s framed from having been in a juried show once long ago. I gently pulled it out of its matte, and then used more archival corners to re-attach it to the matte after I scanned it, and then put the whole thing back in its frame.
I think the tiny tree is my favorite of all the tiny plates I made, though I only used it (or any of them) a few times.
The Tree Breathes, 1″x2″ etching on 8″x10″ watercolor paper, $499 framed with free shipping.
The Tree Breathes by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: etching, for sale, framed, intaglio, tiny plates, tree
Naomi’s Jack, and her Monster
Friday, October 8th, 2010
Naomi's Monster by Amy Crook
Back in May I offered three slots to draw people’s Monsters, so I could by Havi’s Monster Coloring Book. It’s taken a while to get both of us connected (she’s a busy one!), but I finally have the third one done, for Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz.
Naomi didn’t have a specific Monster she wanted colored, so she sent me some pictures of Jack and we talked a little, and I did a sketch for her of this friendly little hill monster offering Jack a pink rose (Naomi has a thing for pink roses. Who knew?). It took a while to get it from idea to finished product, but I love the cheerful green and pink result, a non-creepy monster for her to hang on the wall.
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, commission, copic marker, monster, naomi dunford, nfs, pen and ink
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