Archive for the ‘People, Figures and Faces’ Category

Bound Angel 2

Friday, November 5th, 2010

Bound Angel 2 by Amy Crook

Bound Angel 2 by Amy Crook

This is the second version of yesterday’s drawing, this time a stone lithograph. The process involved in this one gave it a more scribbly feel, and the haloing effect washed out the face, and obscured the arms in stark black shadow.

The feel of this image is different than the first version for me, despite being essentially the same thing. It’s rougher, more abstract, as though the angel has begun to fade into his component parts, the whiteout glow of his halo making the shadows deeper and obscuring detail where it’s the brightest.

I ran 6 of these before clearing the stone for other use, on a heavy grey acid-free art paper. The edges of each one are hand-torn so they’re all slightly irregular, and there’s inky fingerprints around the borders of each one as a testament to their handmade nature.

Bound Angel 2, 14″x7″ stone lithograph on art paper, edition of 6, $99 each with free shipping.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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Bound Angel 1

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Bound Angel 1 by Amy Crook

Bound Angel 1 by Amy Crook

This pencil drawing was the first of 2 images, the second of which is a stone lithograph I’ll post tomorrow. His bindings are invisible, but you can see how his posture hangs as if in chains, face downturned as if contemplating the sin that brought him to this pass.

I’ve always had a fascination with religious imagery, the history and faith that are imbued into these images, the layered ideals and disappointments that each person brings to the viewing. Even if the image is purely representational, every viewer has layers of mental baggage to add to it that makes the piece a unique experience for them.

The graphite goes all the way to the edges of this acid-free bristol board; the black border you can see here is the scanner background. The board is heavy enough to stand on its own in a bookshelf or on a tiny easel, or the image could easily be framed for display.

Bound Angel 1, 6.5″x5″ graphite on bristol board, $99 with free shipping.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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Weeble Wednesday: Obligatory Cultist

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

Cultist by Amy Crook

Cultist by Amy Crook

After doing all those other Lovecraftian monsters, I decided that one thing my coloring book needed was a proper hooded-robed cultist to worship them. He’s wearing the Elder Sign as sketched by Lovecraft (rather than the more star-like version used in Arkham Horror), and chanting in some sanity-rending ancient tongue in his attempts to summon Cthulhu, or one of the other Great Old Ones. Or maybe just a Shoggoth, who knows.

You can find him and a bunch of the monsters he’s trying to summon in my Cthulhu Coloring Book on Etsy, which you can buy either as a pdf or a printed book.

Cultist, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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Zombie: Wait Up!

Friday, October 29th, 2010

Zombie: Wait Up! by Amy Crook

Zombie: Wait Up! by Amy Crook

This cheerful guy is one of the bonus zombies in my Cthulhu Coloring Book — I think he’s a little stuck and wants his zombie pals to wait up while he finishes struggling his way up out of the grave in search for delicious, tasty brains.

I’ve colored him here with a ghoulish green, though I think he’d do just fine in deathly grey or a rotting pink, as well. One nice thing about this one was that the style was so loose and scribbly, it was easy to color without worrying too much about staying inside the lines.

Zombie: Wait Up!, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper.

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Potato Fairy

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Potato Fairy by Amy Crook

Potato Fairy by Amy Crook

When I first started making my own holiday cards, I carved stamps from potatoes, mushrooms, and sponges, and painstakingly hand-stamped dozens of cards — one year I sent nearly 100 cards out! I’ve since graduated to doing one original and printing the cards from that, though I still sometimes add a bit of hand-painted flair to personal cards.

This was the test print for one year’s cards, done using watercolors (including metallics) painted onto those rough handmade stamps. I chose the crouching fairy, though as I recall the cards didn’t get the mushroom-stamped object he’s crouching in front of. I was experimenting with different methods for making the wings, so there’s some extra texture added as well, in metallic gold, red-violet and softly brushed-on blue-green.

Potato Fairy, 9″x12″ watercolor on sketchbook paper, not for sale.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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Dancing on Glass

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Dancing on Glass by Amy Crook

Dancing on Glass by Amy Crook

This is another piece from about the same era — I got into a phase where I was painting with acrylics on shards of broken glass. Surprisingly, I didn’t cut myself nearly as much as you might think. You can see the same fascination with dancers, though — I’ve always been pleased with the feeling of grace in this piece.

I never did figure out a good way to display any of these pieces, though, and I’m not sure I even still have them. If I recall correctly, this one’s about the size of a 3″x5″ index card, and the background is literally painted on the back side of the glass, with the figure floating a few millimeters above it on her own surface.

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
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Inertial Dampeners

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Inertial Dampeners by Amy Crook

Inertial Dampeners by Amy Crook

This piece is a bit of a blast from the past — as the signature says, it was from 1991 and probably originally done in a cheap drugstore sketchbook. I had a real fascination with dancers back in the day, probably due to an utter lack of grace on my own part. Even today, though, I like this as an image of winding down to a state of rest and safety.

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
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