Archive for the ‘People, Figures and Faces’ Category
Elizabeth Halt
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Elizabeth Halt and Atlas by Amy Crook
Elizabeth and Atlas were originally drawn in my very first batch of cartoon client, but she recently came back to me asking for a couple of drawings for her website. What started out as two little illustrations we negotiated into a trio of illustrations and a quadruplet of matching buttons (the fourth one uses her original cartoon, above), working within her budget while getting her just what she was looking for.
The first illustration she wanted was for her “Postcards from Heaven” service (the inspiration for my own Love Notes), and in addition to the postbox that she asked for, a little postcard wanted to come along:
Postbox by Amy Crook for Elizabeth Halt
Postcard by Amy Crook for Elizabeth Halt
Then, after a bit of discussion, we decided on the image of a kneading kitten for her Reiki services — she’d wanted something that portrayed warmth and curiosity, and had suggested a Cheshire cat. After reading her descriptions of how Reiki works, the idea of a cat kneading at the various points on the body came to mind, and this is the result:
Reiki Kitty by Amy Crook for Elizabeth Halt
Then, after we figured out that there was room in her budget, Elizabeth decided to go for a fourth image, another drawing of her darling dog Atlas for her new animal Reiki service, titled “for the love of a weim.” He was a little more challenging to draw, but I ended up very happy with the result:
Atlas sleeping by Amy Crook for Elizabeth Halt
After that was done, all four of her images were resized and I made them into little buttons for her site, using screencaps to figure out what would look best in her sidebar. On her site they float in serene white down the side, but I added a bit of a border for their visit here.
4 website buttons by Amy Crook for Elizabeth Halt
It goes without saying that, although many of the images on this site are usable through Creative Commons licensing, these commissioned images belong to Elizabeth alone.
“I am just in love with my new sidebar buttons from Amy. They are so me, and so perfect, and I really do not have enough words to say how much I love them.”
-Elizabeth Halt
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, commission, copic marker, nfs, pen and ink
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Weeble Wednesday: Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
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
Tags: coloring book, copic marker, for sale, lovecraft, monster, pen and ink, tentacles, weeble
Weeble Wednesday: Bridget Pilloud
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Bridget Pilloud by Amy Crook, annotated by Bridget
I had the chance to cartoon Bridget Pilloud as one of my very first cartoon clients, back when I was first experimenting with the offering. I had a great time working on her because she has a really clear sense of what makes the perfect “inner Bridget” as she put it — she wanted the designer boots she couldn’t afford in life, a fireball to show her inner fire, and clothes, hair and giant grin just like she has (or had — she’s got a cute pixy cut) in real life.
If you’d like to Be a Cartoon yourself, click on over — it takes me a couple of weeks these days because my schedule’s busier, but I’m loving all the fun results!
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: all rights reserved, bridget pilloud, cartoon, copic marker, pen and ink, weeble
Friendly Card Game
Sunday, September 5th, 2010
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
Tags: nfs, pencil, sketch
The Beating of Mighty Wings
Saturday, September 4th, 2010
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, 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
Tags: crow, edition, for sale, lithograph, print series
Urgent Grounding
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Urgent Grounding by Amy Crook
One of the hardest things about art is knowing when a piece is done.
This painting started out as a quick sketch that I filled in with some messy linework in a rich forest green. I started working in the background of rich orangey gold, and then at one point I stepped back and said, you know, I think I like it just as it is. I’ve had it hanging in my living room for a while now, and I haven’t ever wanted to go back and mess with it.
Urgent Grounding, 30″x24″ oil on canvas, $899 with free shipping.
Categories: Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: for sale, oil painting
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