Archive for the ‘Series and Books’ Category
Five 3
Friday, October 14th, 2011
Five 3 by Amy Crook
I decided to do #3 horizontally when one of the salt pools didn’t take, instead spreading out into the paper for mysterious reasons. I added ink dots to depressions in both the wet and dry paper, and I love the way the blue-black ink spread throughout the damp spot. I like the way the stamped “canvas” texture in this paper really supports and informs the art that came to life on its surface.
Five 3, 3.5″x2.5″ mixed media on paper, nfs (but available for trading!).
The canvas-like texture of this card is really evident here, and the way the water and salt distorted it in the lower left where the salt pool didn’t properly form.
Five 3, detail, by Amy Crook
If you’re an artist who makes ATCs of your own, and are coveting this one, let me know!
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: aceo, atc, five series, pen and ink, salt
Five 2
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Five 2 by Amy Crook
In this second piece in the series, I used a purple pen to go with the pinkish-purple that lingered in the center of the salt pools, and the ink separated out as it dried, leaving the pink behind in the lightest washes and looking bluer at the edges. I used simple water to create the background wash, picking up ink from shading that’s nearly erased at the top and bottom, plus the tips of some of the longest lines in the center designs.
This is another of those pieces where incessant fiddling gave me interesting results in the form of the layered ink washes, especially down in the lower left.
Five 2, 2.5″x3.5″ mixed media on paper, nfs (but available for trading!).
You can see the paper texture in the detail shot, and the shape and sparkle in the blue salt pools.
Five 2, detail, by Amy Crook
If you’re an artist who makes ATCs of your own, and are coveting this one, let me know!
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: aceo, atc, five series, pen and ink, salt
Five 1
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Five 1 by Amy Crook
This is my first foray into Artist Trading Cards (or Artist Card Edition Originals, as they’re called if you sell them), though I’ve had a pack of assorted blanks for a while now. I wasn’t sure if any of them would hold up to my method of growing salt crystals, but I decided to do a set of 5 with 5 ink spirals each (whether or not the salt pools formed), and call it, brilliantly, Five.
Have I mentioned I hate coming up with titles?
Five 1, 2.5″x3.5″ mixed media on paper, nfs (but available for trading!).
This one formed a very interesting salt crystal on one of the pools that looked almost melted, curvy and organic in a way most of them really never are.
Five 1, detail, by Amy Crook
If you’re an artist who makes ATCs of your own, and are coveting this one, let me know!
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: aceo, atc, five series, pen and ink, salt
Midnight Rain
Friday, October 7th, 2011
Midnight Rain by Amy Crook
This is a cool echo of the fiery copper from yesterday’s art. Although this is the same paint I used in Jellyfish Bloom, the bright aqua pigment sinks into the black paper, leaving a watery echo of peacock-iridescent shimmer floating on top.
The salt this time picked up some of the green from the pen I used, but it’s quite pale inside the opaque matrix of the crystals. They’re darker where the paint coats them, but everything about this piece came out subtle and ghostly. Appropriate for Halloween, I think.
Midnight Rain, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper.
Midnight Rain, detail, by Amy Crook
When the sunlight hits this one, the iridescent paint goes purple on the paper in lovely contrast to the rich teal you see where it coats the salt crystals. From another angle, it looks more blue, as you can see below in the framed photo.
Midnight Rain, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black, for sale, iridescent, pen and ink, salt, teal, watercolor
Copper Midnight
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
Copper Midnight by Amy Crook, $323
This is the first of a pair of pieces I made together using Arches Cover Black paper. I love that this velvety black paper is fade-proof, because it’s not dyed but instead turns black from a chemical reaction set off in the paper. It’s art with science! Not my science, but still.
I made salt circles with my trusty orange pen, which barely picked up at all into the opaque white crystals this time. Then I used metallic copper watercolor for the ripples around each little pool, and copper gel pen for the signature, making an eerie monochrome piece very appropriate for the Halloween season.
Copper Midnight, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $323, framed, with free shipping.
Below you can see how the iridescent paint catches the light and glows with shimmery copper.
Copper Midnight, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Here you can see just one salt pool, with the copper coating the salt on one side and making it look like it’s almost made of some strange metallic crystal instead of mundane salt. I’ve always liked how each little ring of salt is its own tiny henge of sorts, big crystals rising up around the scattered few in the center.
Copper Midnight, detail 2, by Amy Crook
When the sunlight isn’t hitting them, the places where the paint was thinnest almost sink completely back into the black paper like ghosts, though it seems to float above the paper where it’s thickest. You can see it in its frame, below, with my iPhone for scale.
Copper Midnight, framed, by Amy Crook, $323
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black, copper, for sale, iridescent, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 17
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 17 by Amy Crook
Yet more tentacles for Tuesday! I used a pure wash of zoisite watercolor, and its granular quality dried in a rather squamous, scale-like texture, subtle and matte with a quality to the paint almost like pastel. The dusty paint mixed in with the pure Sharpie ink of the tentacles, softening the sharp blacks, but I wanted a bit more so I took a grey brush pen and added in a second layer of tentacles behind the first.
Tentacle Deeps 17, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper.
I have to admit, I think every single one of these looks cool photographed from this angle. Plus, you can really see the texture of the paint and paper, here.
Tentacle Deeps 17, detail, by Amy Crook
I always like how they look like they’re rising up from some other dimension held within the frame, too. What can I say, I’m easily pleased by tentacles.
Tentacle Deeps 17, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, sharpie, squamous, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 16
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 16 by Amy Crook
It’s Tuesday and that means tentacles! This is painted on a handmade postcard from India, just like Tentacle Deeps 12 & Tentacle Deeps 13.
I actually use the same two colors of paint for the wash on this as yesterday’s art, but the fade is much looser, and there’s no pure pigment, just different mixtures. When I went to put the tentacles on, it struck me that I hadn’t done a horizontal one yet, and so I used the granular lunar black watercolor to paint in these tentacles. The paint settled into the groovs in the paper, emphasizing the texture of the paper and letting the background color glow through the black as though the tentacles are strangely translucent.
Tentacle Deeps 16, ~4″x6″ watercolor on handmade paper.
I can’t resist taking these bottom-up shots whenever I’m photographing these tentacle pieces these days, even though there’s no salt at all on this one.
Tentacle Deeps 16, detail, by Amy Crook
Here we are, a photo of the framed piece with my iPhone providing scale.
Tentacle Deeps 16, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, orange, red, tentacle deeps, watercolor
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