Archive for the ‘Series and Books’ Category
Weeble Wednesday: Bat!
Saturday, March 5th, 2011

Weeble Bat by Amy Crook
When I asked my friends what other cards I should do for Halloween, they were unanimous in requesting a bat, so here he is! I elected to save myself some future carpal tunnel and colored the background with Photoshop, but the rest of it’s done by hand with my trusty Copic markers.
I love the patterns bats make when they fly, so different from birds somehow, so I drew in a few of his friends who are flying off into the sunset without him. Don’t worry, though, he’ll catch up, he was just mugging for the “photo.”
Weeble Bat, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic marker on watercolor paper.
Categories: Daily Art, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: bat, copic marker, halloween, pen and ink, photoshop, weeble
Tentacle Deeps 3
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 3 by Amy Crook
It’s officially a series now because there’s 3 of them, so I gave them their own tag. I’ve made up some more blanks for different ones, greens and reds, so expect a few more before I get tired of painting them.
This one was a different sort of paper, recycled watercolor greeting cards, and I painted over the faint image with rich, opaque Japanese sumi-e inks. I let the paper mostly dry, and then made a mixture of black and green. Between the paper and the wetness of the inks, the tentacles tended to pick up on the color beneath more than the previous two pieces, giving them a faded feeling. I also shaded the paint using blue-violet to blue-green from left to right rather than vertically shading from light to dark, and covered the whole page rather than leaving a white border, so the whole piece has a slightly different feel to it than the others.
Tentacle Deeps 3, 5″x7″ ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
I also made another computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper for this one — please let me know if you download them.

Tentacle Deeps 3, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, iphone, tentacle deeps, wallpaper, watercolor
S is for Sherlock
Thursday, February 24th, 2011

S is for Sherlock by Amy Crook
Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies is my absolute favourite of works — I get to die first, after all — and so when I was experimenting with my Micron pens the urge to parody BBC’s new Sherlock by mashing up the two was irresistible.
Click the image if you’d like to really see the ridiculously obsessive line work, or just enjoy the smaller version where it all blends into a texture.
I decided to combine the pose from “S is for Susan who perished of fits” and the caption and setting from “N is for Neville who died of ennui” in order to capture the essence of modern Sherlock in his state of utter boredom. The window isn’t precisely true to the show (there’s an ornate railing of some kind outside, and curtains), but I really liked the boring brickwork from the N page, so I copied that faithfully and tediously.
I never really thought I’d learn to like shading in such a time-consuming style, but I’m already thinking about other ways I can make use of it. I’ve already got plans to do a companion piece to this for poor John, since Gorey set me up so very well with “J is for James who took lye by mistake.”
S is for Sherlock who died of ennui, 8.5″x6.5″ pen and ink on sketchbook paper, sold.
You can still get the pair of them as handmade blank greeting cards on Etsy, though!
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: baker street tinies, crosshatching, edward gorey, nfs, pastiche, pen and ink, sherlock, sold
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Tentacle Deeps 2
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 2 by Amy Crook
Apparently, this is a series! Who knew?
I had another blue wash sitting around from my last foray at watercolors, and this one, too, seemed to just really want tentacles.I mixed a little green into the black again, but once again it seems to have been swallowed up as the paint dried, though I saw glimmers of it when it was wet.
I used a bigger brush on a smaller piece this time and I’m not sure I liked the coarser control, so of course I’ll have to try again. Perhaps green, or something in a rich blood red?
Tentacle Deeps 2, 4″x6″ watercolor on watercolor postcard.
I didn’t bother with wallpapers on this one, but if you’d like them, just let me know.

Tentacle Deeps 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, tentacle deeps, watercolor
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Tentacle Deeps 1
Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 1 by Amy Crook
This piece started as an experiment with the soft blue wash, which I let sit around for weeks and weeks while I contemplated what to do with it. The other day I had a flash of what to do, and then it took me a few more days to take the time to sit down with my watercolors and add the sinuous tentacles rising up from the deeps.
I’m quite pleased with the results, the feeling of depth and the texture of the soft paper and how it interacted with the watercolors (which are really Japanese sumi-e inks, for the most part). I did mix some green in with the blacks to set it off from the teal wash, but I think that in the end the wash won out and the whole thing has a lovely monochromatic feel.
Tentacle Deeps, 5.5″x7.5″ watercolor on watercolor paper.
I also made a computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper for your downloading pleasure (right-click or ctrl-click to save). Well, okay, I made them for my own use, but I figured it’d be nice to share.

Tentacle Deeps 1, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, iphone, tentacle deeps, wallpaper, watercolor
1 Comment »
Resplendent Ennui
Friday, February 11th, 2011






Resplendent Ennui, a Sherlock comic, by Amy Crook
More silly Sherlock cartoons. I spent some time with this exploring a new style, the idea of repeating panels, the textural shading I could do with my snazzy new Micron pen set, and sleep deprivation. Enjoy!
If you’d like a print of this comic (the originals are already gone, yay!), you can pick one up at my Etsy shop.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: etsy, john watson, nfs, pen and ink, print, sherlock, sherlock bbc, sherlock holmes
3 Comments »
Weeble Wednesday: Wolfman Hearts You
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Wolfman + Heart by Amy Crook
This guy’s a little fuzzy on some things, but his heart is warm and furry and all for you! Werewolf, wolfman, lycanthrope, whatever you want to call him, he’s not on anyone’s team.
This Wolfman is the last of the new illustrations for my Monster Heart Coloring Book, aside from the bonus brides. He’s such a classic movie monster I had to include him.
Wolfman and Wolfman’s Heart, both 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: coloring book, copic marker, for sale, heart, monster, pen and ink, weeble
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