Archive for the ‘Flowers, Trees and Landscapes’ Category

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
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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
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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
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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
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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.

Dreamlands, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
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Old Haunts

Saturday, September 5th, 2020

Old Haunts, 8″x4″ brush & ink and watercolor on paper

I’ve had the spooky, misty-dusk background of this piece sitting around my studio aka living room for ages, and finally one day I just pulled it out and put some trees on it. The light in the middle begged for its own something, and this loosely-constructed, half-overgrown haunted house grew out of that.

It’s possible your artist watches a few too many Halloween movies.

There’s a trio of trees, a handful of crows, and of course the spooky old house rising up out of the mist.

Old Haunts, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see some spooky trees and spooky birds and the misty gloaming sky behind them both. Below, it’s on my shiny new table easel, waiting to haunt its new home.

Old Haunts by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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GPS

Thursday, September 3rd, 2020

GPS, 6″x4″ watercolor on black paper

If you’re not looking for murder, perhaps some direction will do.

This is a GPS satellite, painted for a calendar cover to represent both technology and direction needed in 2021. The sunrise is just glinting over the curve of the earth in the background, a reminder that the sun continues to rise, and the atmosphere that we breathe is the thinnest of layers between us and the void.

It’s painted in metallic and opaque watercolors on black paper, so the sky is an even, velvety charcoal studded with distant stars.

GPS, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the gold of dawn just starting to glint over the Earth’s horizon. Below, the whole of space is laid out in a frame, just waiting to go to its forever home.

GPS, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
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