Archive for the ‘Series and Books’ Category
Weeble Wednesday: Zombie
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
Weeble Zombie by Amy Crook
This morbid fellow is another one of the bonus zombies from my Cthulhu coloring book. I originally had drawn a bunch of these guys for another purpose, but somehow they never got finished until I needed them for the coloring book. Still, I do love the details on this one, from his missing arm to the skull logo on his shoe.
Weeble Zombie, 5″x7″ pen, ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: copic marker, for sale, pen and ink, weeble, zombie
Chocolate Spice Drops
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
This recipe is used with permission from my friend Ellen Fremedon.
I’ve m
ade these several times and they’re always awesome — you can put in whatever assortment of spices you want, but I definitely recommend the fresh ginger and pepper both to get a good bite from the spice.
The texture of these cookies is very soft and cakelike, so they don’t keep for very long, but that’s not usually a problem. They store best in shallow tupperware, with parchment paper between layers to keep them from sticking.
6 Tbsp strong spiced tea (I used Republic of Tea Cardamom Cinnamon, but any black or herbal spice tea would probably work.)
1 cup white sugar
1 stick butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp minced ginger (grated, not powdered, but pre-grated from the produce section is fine)
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup good-quality cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, and black pepper
Dash of cloves, allspice
Cream together butter and sugar, then add egg, vanilla, and fresh ginger. Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and spices. I like to use a whisk for this step to break up lumps, especially in the cocoa.
Blend dry ingredients, wet ingredients, and the tea. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 12-13 minutes. The cookies will puff up in the middle.
Categories: Daily Art, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: food, recipe, sharpie marker
Bound Angel 2
Friday, November 5th, 2010
Bound Angel 2 by Amy Crook
This is the second version of yesterday’s drawing, this time a stone lithograph. The process involved in this one gave it a more scribbly feel, and the haloing effect washed out the face, and obscured the arms in stark black shadow.
The feel of this image is different than the first version for me, despite being essentially the same thing. It’s rougher, more abstract, as though the angel has begun to fade into his component parts, the whiteout glow of his halo making the shadows deeper and obscuring detail where it’s the brightest.
I ran 6 of these before clearing the stone for other use, on a heavy grey acid-free art paper. The edges of each one are hand-torn so they’re all slightly irregular, and there’s inky fingerprints around the borders of each one as a testament to their handmade nature.
Bound Angel 2, 14″x7″ stone lithograph on art paper, edition of 6, $99 each with free shipping.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
Tags: angel, for sale, lithograph
Bound Angel 1
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Bound Angel 1 by Amy Crook
This pencil drawing was the first of 2 images, the second of which is a stone lithograph I’ll post tomorrow. His bindings are invisible, but you can see how his posture hangs as if in chains, face downturned as if contemplating the sin that brought him to this pass.
I’ve always had a fascination with religious imagery, the history and faith that are imbued into these images, the layered ideals and disappointments that each person brings to the viewing. Even if the image is purely representational, every viewer has layers of mental baggage to add to it that makes the piece a unique experience for them.
The graphite goes all the way to the edges of this acid-free bristol board; the black border you can see here is the scanner background. The board is heavy enough to stand on its own in a bookshelf or on a tiny easel, or the image could easily be framed for display.
Bound Angel 1, 6.5″x5″ graphite on bristol board, $99 with free shipping.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
Tags: angel, for sale, pencil
Weeble Wednesday: Obligatory Cultist
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Cultist by Amy Crook
After doing all those other Lovecraftian monsters, I decided that one thing my coloring book needed was a proper hooded-robed cultist to worship them. He’s wearing the Elder Sign as sketched by Lovecraft (rather than the more star-like version used in Arkham Horror), and chanting in some sanity-rending ancient tongue in his attempts to summon Cthulhu, or one of the other Great Old Ones. Or maybe just a Shoggoth, who knows.
You can find him and a bunch of the monsters he’s trying to summon in my Cthulhu Coloring Book on Etsy, which you can buy either as a pdf or a printed book.
Cultist, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
Tags: copic marker, cthulhu, cultist, ia ia cthulhu fthagn, pen and ink, weeble
Honeycake
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
This recipe started out life in the Winnie the Pooh Cookery Book and then was extensively altered from its original form as a birthday cake.
Basically, every single time I read a fantasy novel, someone is having sticky, delicious honeycakes, and I really wanted to get in on that. But I couldn’t find a recipe that sounded right, so I started with this one and altered it and altered it and messed with it until I got the dense, spiced, super sweet honeyed cake that I’d always imagined.
When this cake is baked up it’s heavy and a bit sticky, and goes wonderfully with a good cup of tea. Experiment to find the just-right baking time for you; my original recipe said 20-25 minutes, but I ended up going about 40 with the white whole wheat flour and that wasn’t quite enough. (Note: I have since had my oven fixed and get shorter baking times these days.)
1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour (I’ve made this with alternative flours with good results, too)- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cardamon
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup honey (spray measuring cup with cooking oil before adding honey for easier pouring)
- powdered sugar and/or nutmeg, for decoration
Preheat oven to 375° F. Sift dry ingredients together. While mixing, slowly add milk, eggs, softened butter, vanilla & honey. I mixed up the milk, eggs, and vanilla, then alternated milk mixture with honey, adding in the butter somewhere in the middle. When a creamy batter has formed (mmm), pour into 1 greased 9-inch round cake pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes (watching carefully if your oven is at all like mine) or until brown around the edges, and a cake tester comes out with just crumbs and no batter goo.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and/or nutmeg and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Use stencils to create pretty patterns if you’re a big dork or Martha Stewart.
Serves 12 (or 6 if you’re like me).
Categories: Daily Art, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bear, food, honey, recipe, sharpie marker
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Potato Fairy
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
Potato Fairy by Amy Crook
When I first started making my own holiday cards, I carved stamps from potatoes, mushrooms, and sponges, and painstakingly hand-stamped dozens of cards — one year I sent nearly 100 cards out! I’ve since graduated to doing one original and printing the cards from that, though I still sometimes add a bit of hand-painted flair to personal cards.
This was the test print for one year’s cards, done using watercolors (including metallics) painted onto those rough handmade stamps. I chose the crouching fairy, though as I recall the cards didn’t get the mushroom-stamped object he’s crouching in front of. I was experimenting with different methods for making the wings, so there’s some extra texture added as well, in metallic gold, red-violet and softly brushed-on blue-green.
Potato Fairy, 9″x12″ watercolor on sketchbook paper, not for sale.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
Tags: fairy, holidays, nfs, potato stamp, watercolor
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