Archive for the ‘Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths’ Category

Endless: Dream

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Endless: Dream by Amy Crook

Endless: Dream by Amy Crook

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series has inspired thousands of artists of all sorts since it began in 1989. I made a total of 5 of these small etching plates for the Endless, though for some reason I never printed the Death plate by itself, although it’s used in one of my larger pieces, Red Death.

This plate represents the series’ main character, Dream. His dark robes, at times, showed the faces of infinite dreamers around the hem, and so I used a tattered piece of silk to create the impression of cloth at the top of the plate. Then I drew the faces in by hand, young and old, male and female, each of them dreaming with their eyes shut tight.

Dream, 2″x2.75″ etching on 6″x6″ watercolor paper, 1/1, $199 with free shipping.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Weeble Wednesday: Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Nyarlathotep Weeble by Amy Crook

Nyarlathotep Weeble by Amy Crook

Adding another weeble to my depictions of the mythos of HP Lovecraft, I give you Nyarlathotep. He appears at least twice as a handsome, charismatic Pharaoh gathering armies for the Great Old Ones. He’s also known as the Crawling Chaos, and he shows up in a few other, less palatable forms, in other stories. I had fun drawing his creepy-crawly shadow, not to mention the sneaky monsterified details on his otherwise traditional costume.

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, 5″x7″ pen, ink and Copic marker on paper.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Red Death

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Red Death by Amy Crook

Red Death by Amy Crook

This piece has a bit of a story to it. It’s a large monoprint, with a very small etching plate near the center of the paper. The two more random images were created by mixing up the blood-red ink and then smushing it between two plates, and then printing the result. I love the way the bottom image looks a bit like a heart (of the anatomical sort), while the left image seems to hold a whole world of secrets, a landscape of crimson mystery.

The etching plate is part of a series I started and never finished, depicting Neil Gaiman’s Endless from his Sandman comic series — but not the people, the ideas they represented. This plate was, I think, the most successful, the image for Death. I did print a single edition of the plates by themselves, and I’ll post those next month sometime (very Halloween appropriate).

Together the 3 images seem to tell a story, or to invite the viewer to tell their own story. I think every piece of art has something to say to the viewer, but not every person gets the same message. I’m always curious what a piece says to other people — what does this one say to you?

Red Death, 22.5″x16″ etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $699 with free shipping.

Red Death, detail, by Amy Crook

Red Death, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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The Texture of Faith

Monday, September 6th, 2010

The Texture of Faith by Amy Crook

The Texture of Faith by Amy Crook

This print uses 3 of my little etching plates, two of which have been double-inked so that there’s a primary color in the actual etching, and a secondary red on the surface of the plate. The top two plates are both found objects of a sort, the smaller one is actually part of a larger plate that I cut up and kept pieces of to use in other prints. The paper has a beautiful texture of its own, lending an extra dimension to the abstract images, and giving a rich desert for the tiny cruciform figure to wander in.

The Texture of Faith, detail, by Amy Crook

The Texture of Faith, detail, by Amy Crook

There’s a lot of meaning that could be inferred here, but this is one of those pieces that’s hard to quantify for me — I can talk about this technical aspect or that process, but the end result was something unexpected. There’s hints of stories and ideas hiding in the abstract, brought out by the smallest image at the bottom.

The Texture of Faith, 15.5″x23″ intaglio and monoprint on imported Mexican bark paper, $499 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art
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Friendly Card Game

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

Friendly Card Game by Amy Crook

Friendly Card Game by Amy Crook

I feel as though this should be renamed “Myths Playing Poker,” except neither one is really a specific mythical creature. I’m thinking of doing this up as a watercolor, but we’ll see how much motivation actually occurs. I do have another watercolor to work on, though, so it’s got a chance.

Edit: Got the watercolor done, you can see it here.

I drew this the other day when I was at a cafe with a friend, it was nice to have nothing else to do, because it encouraged me to make the piece much more finished and add a lot of detail rather than just doodle up a quick sketch.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange
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The Beating of Mighty Wings

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings by Amy Crook

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings, lithograph by Amy Crook

This piece was a two-part stone lithograph drawn by hand on two stones, which is a really interesting and odd process that I only got a chance to try out twice during the short time I had access to the materials.

The image on the left contains a quote from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series about his character of Death, and that’s the quote which I used to title the whole piece. On the right, we have a quote from the Joy Division song “In a Lonely Place,” which was quoted in the original comics for The Crow — the second comic series I ever collected (the first was Bill Sienkiewicz’s Stray Toasters). The image, of course, is of the main character from the comic and later movie, and has a pattern of wings overlaying the shadows, a match to the outspread wing in the first panel.

There are a lot of hidden things here about death and myth and meaning, but also about art and inspiration, and the process that artists of all sorts go through, amalgamating all the art they consume, the culture around them and the facts and trivia they learn, and putting it through the mill of their own experience. The Crow is littered with quotes from songs, The Sandman is rife with literary, historical and mythical references, and between them there is a small but coherent thread of death and flight and black wings that carry the soul away, that I’ve chosen to weave into this artwork.

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings, edition, 22″x15″ stone lithograph on watercolor paper.

The print above on the buff paper was done in an edition of 26, of which I still have 6 (with some variation between prints owing to the process). I also have a single print on heavy natural-deckle handmade watercolor paper that’s one of a kind. No more of these can ever be made — the stones were long sanded down smooth and used for other artworks.

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings, AP by Amy Crook

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings, AP by Amy Crook

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings, A/P, 22″x17″ stone lithograph on handmade watercolor paper.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Monster in Daisies

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Monster in Daisies by Amy Crook

Monster in Daisies by Amy Crook

I drew this little guy because I wanted to remind myself that my internal voices, what Havi Brooks calls Monsters, just want to take care of me. And that sometimes, those monsters are a lot smaller than their voices sound. This miniature monster just wants to be friends, and make sure we can all just get along. He’s even got flowers!

Monster in Daisies, 5″x7″ copic markers on watercolor paper. Buy Him on a Card at Etsy!

Buy Me at Etsy!

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
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