Archive for the ‘Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths’ Category
The Stars Are Right
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
The Stars Are Right by Amy Crook
The dark skies framing the glowing salt stars are painted in my newest art supply acquisition, paint made from actual Bloodstone. The color looks a bit more brownish to my eye, but the scanner definitely gave it a green tinge more like the actual stone looks before it’s ground up and made into paint. I have a number of the oil paints from this line (I love the Amazonite green), but this is my first foray into the watercolors, and I love the granular texture the paint gets as it dries.
The arrangement of green salt formations really reminded me of a constellation, and the color of course made me think of Cthulhu, especially with the Bloodstone watercolor to ground it, so that’s where the piece gets its name. After all, Cthulhu is merely snoozing until the stars align and new reign begins. In a strictly fictional manner, of course.
The Stars Are Right, 7″x5″ salt, pen & ink and watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
The Stars Are Right, detail, by Amy Crook
Above you can see a bit more of what the paint looks like in the sunlight, the warm brown-black setting off the cool green quite nicely. Below, I’ve got the piece in a simple black frame that protects the salt crystals and brings out the color in the bloodstone.
The Stars Are Right, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art
Tags: bloodstone, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
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WIP: Weeble Cthulhu Divination Deck
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Weeble Cthulhu Divination Card sketch by Amy Crook
Since it’s been a while since I released my two Coloring Books, I want to get back to my original weeble monster love and do another Cthulhu project. This time, I want to make a parody divination deck starring Weeble Cthulhu and his other creepy cute pals. This is inspired both by my love of tarot cards (they’re like little packs of themed art!), and the completely awesome Fantod Pack by Edward Gorey.
I’m still making a lot of the basic decisions, but I made this sketch as a motivator for myself. I love how his tentacles float up in the water, and the weird angles on his altar bed, though I’m pretty sure I won’t bother to show the surface of the water in the final, just shade it to give sense of being below the depths. I just felt like drawing a tiny sailboat.
Stuff that needs to be decided (feel free to weigh in!):
- What size should the cards be — playing card or tarot card size?
- How big should the deck be? (I’m thinking 42 cards right now.)
- Or, do I want to add a whole extra research dimension by trying to do an entire 78-card Tarot deck?
- If I did do a Tarot deck, how would the suits work? Obviously Tentacles would be a suit, but what about the other 3?
- If I did a 42-card “divination deck,” what should I do for the actual instructions for use?
- Either way I need to assign numbers and meanings to the monsters, which should be hilariously fun. I love the universal gloom of Gorey’s predictions, though mine will of course involve more tentacles.
- Where should I have them printed? How fancy should the accompanying booklet be?
- What other rewards should the Kickstarter off than packs and more packs? Originals, obviously, but what else?
I want to get at least half if not most of the art done before I even consider a Kickstarter, so that if/when it does fund it’ll be ready to send off to the printer very soon after. Having supported several Kickstarters now, I have to admit that the wait after funding is interminable, and the one that was ready for press right away and has already shipped to me has a very special place in my heart.
So, what do you all think, dear readers? Would you want to divine that you were destined to be detained by demons, tickled by tentacles or poked by psuedopods? Or have I lost too much of my sanity to be trusted?
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Works In Progress
Tags: cthulhu, lovecraft, tarot, weeble, wip
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Monsters of HP Lovecraft Print
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Monsters of HP Lovecraft Print by Amy Crook, $23.23
My 4-year-old printer finally bit the dust 2 weeks ago, and when the time came to replace it, I couldn’t resist the lure of a large-format printer. It prints my cards beautifully (and borderlessly), and now I can make something awesome and new – posters! Actually the color is richer and deeper than the old printer, so my cards look even better now, closer to the originals.
Okay, the best part is really that it just fits into the bookshelf where the old one lived, so I don’t have to try to rearrange everything. But the prints are pretty cool.
Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, and half a dozen others are printed in rich, cartoon colors along with their names and a short description of their place in the Lovecraft Mythos.
I’ve decided to run an open edition of 11″x17″ prints, on high-quality 28-lb bright white laser paper. I’ll be shipping them first class mail in good-quality cardboard poster tubes, so you should get yours in perfect condition and ready to hang. I’ll even sign it!
Monsters of HP Lovecraft Print, 11″x17″ print on paper, $23.23 with free shipping in the US. Available at my Etsy shop.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art
Tags: copic marker, cthulhu, etsy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, weeble
Delight Gremlin
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
Delight Gremlin by Amy Crook, all rights reserved
The charming Chris Anthony is has recently re-branded his business as The Delightworks! As part of his new thing, he’s planning to sneak in some easter eggs throughout the site, so he asked me to do a cartoon for him. Instead of drawing him, which I’ve already done, he asked me to draw what I imagined his little gremlin might look like from the front. If you’re not sure where the original is, it’s hiding out on his home page, just keep looking.
He’s not quite a weeble, but I figured he was cute enough for a Wednesday, anyway.
Want a cartoon of your own? Get one here.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, commission, copic marker, nfs, pen and ink
Shrinky Dinks 1
Saturday, June 18th, 2011
Shrinky Dinks, set 1, by Amy Crook
Do you remember Shrink Dinks? I had forgotten all about them until I ran across the Klutz Press book on them, which of course I bought, and then proceeded to store away for years with my art supplies. Well, today is the day they finally got put to use.
I used about 1/3 of a sheet for these guys, and wow, they got soooo wee. Seriously, I was somehow not expecting them to shrink quite so much, but I have future wicked plans for making more. Here you can see them with a dime for size comparison — on my screen, they’re actually larger than they are in real life.
Shrinky Dinks, set 1, by Amy Crook
Dark-colored Sharpies are still quite dark on the semi-transparent plastic, though you can see the colors clearly above with the lights shining through. I’m definitely going to have to experiment with some more of these, and then figure out how to price them and what for. Perhaps a set of ninja stitch markers? Zombie zipper pulls? Cthulhu on a cord for a necklace?
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: cthulhu, ninja, omgwee, shrinky dinks, squid, zombie
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Nefarious Parent
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Nefarious Parent by Amy Crook
When my friend Bkwyrm approached me to ask about doing a logo for her new forum for parents with an occult bent, Parentes Nefarii, we tossed back and forth a couple of ideas. In the end, we decided that her budget and needs were best suited to a cartoon — but not of her. This weeble cultist (yep, Weeble Wednesday is back!) is carrying a rather dubious-looking baby, from tentacles to horns.
The innocent baby-blonde curl of hair really makes it for me, especially contrasted with the bald cultist and his bluer-than-blue eyes.
Nefarious Parent, 7″x5″ pen and ink and Copic Marker on watercolor paper, not for sale (commission). This, and all my other commissions, aren’t for free use per the Creative Commons license below — all rights are reserved for the commissioner*.
*And the Commissioner always has Batman on his/her side.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Tentacles
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, commission, copic marker, cultist, nfs, pen and ink, tentacle, weeble
Tentacle Deeps 13
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 13 by Amy Crook
And so we come to the end of a series! 13 Tentacle Deeps seemed like enough, a good stopping point before I got bored with the idea altogether. I’ve really enjoyed having the structure there to experiment with materials, watercolor and salt, pen and ink, different papers and techniques.
This last installment in the series started with a very dark wash of mixed black and green and a little blue, which settled out at the bottom in an interesting root-like formation when it dried. I chose to grow the tentacles out of the top of the roots rather than cover them up, and then added simple table salt to give a little bit of sparkle and texture to the image. The paper is one of the handmade postcards I bought ages ago, rough and off-white and not really a proper rectangle, which gives the piece a wonderful texture.
Tentacle Deeps 13, 4″x6″ watercolor and salt.
I’ve also made an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper out of this one to celebrate the end of the series. Enjoy!
Tentacle Deeps 13, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, green, salt, teal, tentacle deeps, watercolor
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