Archive for the ‘Series and Books’ Category
Tentacle Deeps 13
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 13 by Amy Crook
And so we come to the end of a series! 13 Tentacle Deeps seemed like enough, a good stopping point before I got bored with the idea altogether. I’ve really enjoyed having the structure there to experiment with materials, watercolor and salt, pen and ink, different papers and techniques.
This last installment in the series started with a very dark wash of mixed black and green and a little blue, which settled out at the bottom in an interesting root-like formation when it dried. I chose to grow the tentacles out of the top of the roots rather than cover them up, and then added simple table salt to give a little bit of sparkle and texture to the image. The paper is one of the handmade postcards I bought ages ago, rough and off-white and not really a proper rectangle, which gives the piece a wonderful texture.
Tentacle Deeps 13, 4″x6″ watercolor and salt.
I’ve also made an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper out of this one to celebrate the end of the series. Enjoy!
Tentacle Deeps 13, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, green, salt, teal, tentacle deeps, watercolor
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Red Irony
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Red Irony, front cover, by Amy Crook
I have a few of these little folded over pieces of thick, stiff watercolor paper just waiting for me to find something to do with them. This first one had its front painted weeks before the last of its inside panels got their decorations.
When you unfold the first panel of the little square, you get a different Zen circle and surprise tentacles:
Red Irony, detail, by Amy Crook
The inner circle is smaller and a little more broken, and the tentacles seem to be reaching for it, toward some mysterious end.
When you open it further you find that the tentacles are now reaching for a mysterious blue-black circle of paint, accompanied by an appropriate Lovecraft quote.
Red Irony, inside panels, by Amy Crook
From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent.
-H.P. Lovecraft
The starting F has been decorated with twining red tentacles, this panel done with pen and ink in matching shades of blue-black and blood red, rather than watercolor like the rest of the piece.
Red Irony, 10″x4.25″ watercolor and pen and ink on watercolor paper.
This piece is unframed, and really is more suited to standing snuggled up with old books where it can surprise the unwary, and hopefully make them smile at its odd message. The paper is quite stiff and the materials archival, so it should be able to withstand a bit of wear and tear, though I’d still keep it out of reach of little fingers.
For completion, here’s what the back of the piece looks like, though I may add a signature to the blank back panel before it gets slipped away into storage with the rest of my watercolor pieces.
Red Irony, outside panels, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: calligraphy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, red, tentacles, watercolor, zen circle
Tentacle Deeps 12
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 12 by Amy Crook
I think I may be just about done with the tentacle series, so in a few weeks I’ll have to think of something else to do with my Tuesdays.
This one got two layers of washes, one darker than the other, so I decided to keep the tentacles themselves to a single, matte black layer, contained entirely within the darker wash, at least at the bottom. One of them does break out of the top, as tentacles are wont to do. The rich colors of this were lost somewhat in the scanning process (I do seem to say that a lot, don’t I?), but this handmade (not by me, though) postcard looks great in a simple black frame.
Tentacle Deeps 12, 4″x6″ watercolor on handmade postcard.
Tentacle Deeps 12, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, tentacle deeps, turquoise, watercolor
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Tentacle Deeps 11
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 11 by Amy Crook
I tried something a little different with today’s tentacles, and I think the results are really interesting.
The background was a wash of periwinkle gouache with large already-paint-stained salt crystals set int the wet paint and left to dry. The resulting spots seemed to me like excellent starting points for some tentacles, so it looks like they’re each emerging from their own interdimensional portal. I went for a lighter color of tentacles, a deep green instead of the opaque black or blue-black I usually use, giving the whole thing a sense less of depths than heights.
Tentacle Deeps 11, 5″x7″ watercolor and salt on watercolor paper.
Below you can see a close-up of the way the paint and salt reacted to each other, and the way they layered when a tentacle was painted over one of the salt “portals.”
Tentacle Deeps 11, detail, by Amy Crook
And here you can see it in its lovely new frame:
Tentacle Deeps 11, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, periwinkle, salt, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Water Lilies 2
Monday, May 9th, 2011
Water Lilies 2 by Amy Crook
This is currently sitting in a frame on my bookshelf next to Water Lilies 1, and the two of them catch the morning sun beautifully. The salt “flowers” have a soft sparkle to them that really draws the eye to their three-dimensional shapes. I especially like the way the electric blue spirals dissolve into a soft but very clear cyan that tints the salt crystals.
The nerd in me also likes that the lily pads came out with a very Pac-Man
Water Lilies 2, 7″x5″ watercolor and salt on watercolor paper, $199 framed with free shipping.
Water Lilies 1 & Water Lilies 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Water Lilies 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Water Lilies 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, framed, salt, watercolor
Lovecrafty
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
Lovecrafty by Amy Crook
While some pieces come together with effortless synchronicity, others are a struggle from start to finish. This piece was definitely one of the latter, but I’m finally happy with the end result. There’s just something that really amuses me in the way it seems like a cross between Lovecraftian horror and a 12-year-old girl’s diary.
The grey writing is done with a brush pen usually used for shading, the barely-legible words are a couple of especially creepy quotes from HP Lovecraft’s fiction. Blank spaces on the left were filled in with single words or shorter phrases, giving the whole thing a sense of mad, frantic writing, the deranged mind getting out what it’s seen. Or, possibly more insanity-inducing, the inner feelings of a pre-teen.
The images themselves are layered, everything from printer ink to sharpie marker, watercolor to pen and ink. I used water to blur things left and right and there’s even a tiny bit of salt texture, though it doesn’t take very well on this type of paper. I considered adding some tentacle monster green into the mix to dull down the overall cheeriness of the palette, but in the end I couldn’t resist the juxtaposition of color and intent.
Lovecrafty, 5″x7″ pen & ink, watercolor, Sharpie marker and salt on paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, quote, salt, sharpie, watercolor
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Moleskine Cahier: Limned
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Limned, customized Moleskine Cahier journal by Amy Crook
I’ve had a little pile of these Moleskine Cahier journals sitting with my drawing supplies for weeks now, but haven’t been really inspired for what to do with them. I took one to bed with me to ponder one night when I was too wound up to sleep but tired of my usual workspaces, and after a while this idea came to mind. It’s very similar in form to another piece, Growth, but in this case the form itself is a negative space limned by a cluster of silver dots, rather than the painted circle in the first piece.
Limned, 3.5″x5.5″ silver Sharpie on Moleskine Cahier journal, $23 with free shipping.
Cahier Journals sport a heavy-duty black cardboard cover, with visible thread stitching on the spine. Inside each journal you’ll find acid-free paper pages and a spacious pocket for notes or clippings. Size: 3.5 x 5.5 in. (9 x 14 cm), 64 plain pages each, last 16 sheets detachable.
Because of the simplicity of the art on the front, I chose to sign & date this one on the back instead.
Limned, customized Moleskine, back, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Moleskines, Series and Books
Tags: black, for sale, moleskine, sharpie, silver
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