Archive for the ‘Series and Books’ Category
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
4 Comments »
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
Weeble Wednesday: Cthulhu has a Coloring Book!
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
Cthulhu Coloring Book by Amy Crook
Encouraged by the success of my Lovecraft-themed greeting cards on Etsy, I decided to up the ante this season and make a whole coloring book! There’s a few weebles you’ve already seen, and a bunch you haven’t — I even did a whole new Cthulhu for the cover (plus he’s on page 1 for your coloring pleasure).
There’s a whole bunch of adorably creepy creatures from the stories of HP Lovecraft and the other authors who’ve played in his Mythos over the years, plus a small mob of bonus Zombies.
You can get the Cthulhu Coloring Book on Etsy, either as a pdf or a printed book.
Weeble Cthulhu 2 by Amy Crook
You see what he has to put up with?
Weeble Cthulhu 2, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper, not for sale.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: coloring book, copic marker, cthulhu, etsy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, weeble
4 Comments »
The Tree Breathes
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
The Tree Breathes, detail, by Amy Crook
This is another one-of-a-kind print done using my tiny etching plates. I almost forgot completely about it, ironically because it’s framed from having been in a juried show once long ago. I gently pulled it out of its matte, and then used more archival corners to re-attach it to the matte after I scanned it, and then put the whole thing back in its frame.
I think the tiny tree is my favorite of all the tiny plates I made, though I only used it (or any of them) a few times.
The Tree Breathes, 1″x2″ etching on 8″x10″ watercolor paper, $499 framed with free shipping.
The Tree Breathes by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: etching, for sale, framed, intaglio, tiny plates, tree
Weeble Wednesday: Dagon
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Weeble Dagon by Amy Crook
Today I’ve got another of HP Lovecraft’s creations, made into a creepy-adorable weeble. Dagon has his very own eponymous short story, but he also is alluded to in “Shadows Over Innsmouth,” the short story from which I illustrated a fishy Deep One earlier in the year.
Lovecraft had a real horror of all things fishy and oceanic, and it shows in the tentacled, scaley (and often quite overblown) descriptions he gave in his stories. I’ve tried to mix the macabre with the cute in my depictions, and I’ve had a lot of fun choosing which creature to cartoon next.
I’ll be adding him to my series of Lovecraftian Greeting Cards on Etsy as well, which are perfect for this spooky season.
Weeble Dagon, 5″x7″ pen, ink and copic marker on watercolor paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: coloring book, copic marker, etsy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, weeble
2 Comments »
Missionary
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
Missionary, view 1, by Amy Crook
This is the last of the bronze couples I have, though there’s one more single figure saved to finish up the series.
This couple has a contrasting patina, the woman in soft greens and the man in rich mahogany browns, giving them a rather biracial feel. They’re resting on a soft peach pillow in the classic missionary position. Interestingly, if you flip them over the woman’s pose goes from abandon with her outflung arm, to anger as it’s raised overhead as if to strike.
Like all the couples, the two figures fit together and come apart, adding a tactile dimension to the art. Also, they’re just kinda fun to play with.
Missionary, bronze sculpture with fringed pillow, $1399 with free shipping.
Missionary, view 2, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
Tags: bronze, for sale, sex people
Symbols
Monday, October 4th, 2010
Symbols by Amy Crook
This is another print that combines tiny etching plates with double-inking to make a unique print. The 3 images in the middle column were all inked once, wiped clean,a nd then inked carefully a second time to give them a duochrome look, while the two plates to the left and right were inked just once in the same pure colors that are used on the others. Really there’s four colors present: blue, yellow, red and black, very primary.
Each plate has its own symbolism that, when combined with the others, invites the viewer to construct their own narrative. Do your eyes start in the golden sand dunes, or up with the floating cruciform figure? Do you puzzle out the dancer on the left first, or the ankh on the right? The central image is completely abstract, drawing the imagination to fill in why it’s surrounded by these other, smaller satellite images.
Symbols, 10″x10″ etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $399 with free shipping.
Symbols, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: ankh, crucifix, etching, for sale, intaglio, tiny plates
« Or Head Back That Way
More Art This Way »
