Archive for the ‘Series and Books’ Category

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior, drawing by Amy Crook

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior, drawing by Amy Crook

Today’s and tomorrow’s art are the newest in my Baker Street Tinies series, which combines the world of the recent Sherlock series from the BBC with the worlds and aesthetics of Edward Gorey.

Like the previous four, these were commissioned, so the originals are already sold and mailed off to their new owners. Nicole and Mo wanted to celebrate their own love and their love of Sherlock Holmes with tattoos, and so we created a unique Gorey-ish vision of 221b Baker Street for each of them. You can’t have the originals, but you can get the designs on greeting cards at Etsy!

This exterior shot is only somewhat faithful to the series — 221b itself has many of the features of Baker Street in the tv show, but the rest of the buildings are fanciful re-imaginings. You can see a shadow of a certain detective in the window of 221b, talking to the skull sitting atop a pile of books in the other window. Someone seems to have left their umbrella outside, but they can catch one of London’s famous black cabs if it rains. There’s even a binary joke hiding in the windows of the middle building.

My personal favorite is the fourth building, which just looks so very sad and shocked at what goes on in its neighborhood.

“Amy was an absolute pleasure to work with. She asked great questions to get at what we wanted out of the artwork, sent us drafts along the way, and worked with us to shape a final product that is absolutely stunning.  She went above and beyond to see that the final product fit our needs, and we had a great experience all around.”

Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Tentacle Deeps 34

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Tentacle Deeps 34, watercolor by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 34, watercolor by Amy Crook

I love the way these experimental tentacles came out, with the rich blue at the core fading to iridescent green and then finally the salt that looks almost coppery compared to the cool interior. These are tentacles reaching out from some sort of translucent blob, perhaps a Shoggoth resting at the bottom of his cell, trying to get out and eat his creators.

Omnomnom!

Tentacle Deeps 34, 4″x6″ salt and watercolor on paper.

Tentacle Deeps 34, detail, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 34, detail, by Amy Crook

Above you can see a detail of the tentacles forming out of their base and reaching upwards and away from you. I think this image is quite nifty, so I made an iPhone wallpaper for you to share it with me. Below, the usual frame-up job, with my iPhone for scale only.

Tentacle Deeps 34, framed art by by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 34, framed art by by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
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Nebula 2

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Nebula 2, abstract art by Amy Crook

Nebula 2, abstract art by Amy Crook, $333

This piece really reminds me of a special effect on some old scifi show, a slice of space showing through the opaque curtain of some foggy white nebula. The salt sparkles on the dark blue background, and the iridescent green peeks through in the lighter patches to give it an otherworldly feel.

Nebula 2, 7″x5″ salt and watercolor on paper, $333 framed, with free shipping.

Nebula 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Nebula 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Above you can really see the way the interference green peeks through the salt, only to be subsumed by the midnight blue in the deeper part of the salt pool. Below, you can see it safely tucked into a frame and ready to come live with you.

Nebula 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Nebula 2, framed art by Amy Crook, $333

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
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Sherlock & Dr Watson Shrinky Dinks

Saturday, April 21st, 2012

Sherlock, Dr. Watson and a Tentacle, Shrinky Dinks, shrunk, by Amy Crook

Sherlock, Dr. Watson and a Tentacle, Shrinky Dinks,
shrunk, by Amy Crook

I was in the mood to doodle something silly the other day, so I made these three Shrinky Dinks. Above is the “after” version, next to a quarter so you get a feel for how big they turned out. Below is the “before” version, with the very same quarter for comparison.

If you’re coveting these, the tentacle’s been claimed but you can still get John & Sherlock as donation gifts in my HALP PLS computer replacement donation drive. Because while I mostly use natural media (physical not digital things) to make art, I still need a working computer to bring the art to you.

Sherlock, Dr. Watson and a Tentacle, Shrinky Dinks, unshrunk, by Amy Crook

Sherlock, Dr. Watson and a Tentacle, Shrinky Dinks, unshrunk, by Amy Crook

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange
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Tentacle Deeps 33

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

Tentacle Deeps 33, watercolor by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 33, watercolor by Amy Crook

Today’s tentacles are muted, odd, and not really opaque. The background is something I painted ages ago and then wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it, until this week I decided that I’d use some blue-violet I’d dulled with black would make good tentacles to go with the grey-green. I watered the color down a bit for the front ones to get some extra visual texture, and then even more for the back row.

I’ve been looking at some of my older tentacles recently, and I liked the rougher, less perfected shapes in Tentacle Deeps 2, so I decided to revisit those here. Everything’s deliberately wobbly and out of balance, with angular spirals and long, reaching arms. I wonder what’s up there that they’re so keen to get to.

Tentacle Deeps 33, 5″x7″ watercolor on paper.

Tentacle Deeps 33, detail, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 33, detail, by Amy Crook

You can really see the texture in the detail shot, the paper and the old paint underneath the new, giving it all a shadowy, desaturated feel. Below, you can see the tentacles happy in their frame, reaching forever for the sky.

Tentacle Deeps 33, framed art by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 33, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
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Negative Sixteen Degrees Sharpie

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

Sharpie Sherlock silliness by Amy Crook

Sharpie Sherlock silliness by Amy Crook

Sharpie Week Redux continues with tentacles! You know I’d never skip your Tuesday tentacles.

This time @wyomingnot on Twitter asked me to draw something related to a fanfic where Sherlock is a genius pastry chef who wants to open an ice cream shop, and John is his faithful sidekick/store manager. The title is I believe the name of the shop, which refers to the ideal ice cream storage temperature in Celsius.

Or something, I don’t know. John! Sherlock! Tentacle Surprise ice cream! Really, do the details matter?

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Nap Attack

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

Nap Attack, Sherlock cartoon by Amy Crook

Nap Attack, Sherlock cartoon by Amy Crook

A friend asked for some cheer-up art of Sherlock fallen asleep over his experiments, and perhaps someone having covered him with a blanket. I couldn’t leave John out of the picture, so here he is mid-kindness.

Click the picture to see it bigger. I feel John is the one responsible for re-labeling Sherlock’s blow torch, and that at least one item in the array actually belongs to Mrs. Hudson. Oops.

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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