Archive for the ‘Tentacles’ Category
Sharpie Week: Bashful Cuttlefish
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
Sharpie Bashful Cuttlefish sketch by Amy Crook
Prompted by the very houseguest who is keeping me in SF and away from my studio, I drew a bashful little cuttlefish hiding behind a shell. Don’t ask me about the spots, I don’t even know. He wanted color.
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
Tags: nfs, sharpie, sharpie week, tentacles
Jellyfish Deeps 2
Thursday, June 7th, 2012
Jellyfish Deeps 2 by Amy Crook
Jellyfish, jellyfish everywhere! Well, okay, just here and on my phone, but still. Somehow getting Jellyfish Deeps put onto my phone as a custom Gelaskin inspired me to make a sequel. I rescued another paper from the pile of awful, added another layer of watercolor and salt, and then let that dry into something far more pleasing. Once that was done, it was time for the white gel pen and jellyfish.
I like drawing these jellyfish, too, they’re like happy little aliens floating serenely amidst the currents and formations in the deep of ocean or maybe outer space. Also, tentacles.
Jellyfish Deeps 2, 5″x7″ pen & ink, salt, gel pen and watercolor on paper.
Jellyfish Deeps 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see that the salt on this piece is just a scattering of texture and sparkle rather than solid formations like some of the pieces. Below, the piece is cuddled up in my desk with my phone for size reference.
Jellyfish Deeps 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: crosshatching, for sale, gel pen, jellyfish, pen and ink, salt, tentacles, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 37
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 37 by Amy Crook
Today I bring you, in a completely unsurprising move, more tentacles! My computer really hates the color of these tentacles, so if you’re hoping for accuracy the framed photo is the closest. Photoshop and I just couldn’t come to an agreement here for some reason. Madness!
Anyway, these tentacles are painted with watercolor onto canvas board, which gives them an intriguing texture both in the background and the tentacles themselves, and causes the paint to dry slightly muted from what I expect, so that the blacks are soft and matte.
Tentacle Deeps 37, 8″x10″ watercolor on canvas board.
Tentacle Deeps 37, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see how the paint sinks into the texture of the canvas. Below, the framed shot for scale and color closest to the reality. Which is to say, not very, heh.
Tentacle Deeps 37, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, canvas board, for sale, green, tentacle deeps, tentacles
Octopus Loves Boba
Saturday, June 2nd, 2012
Octopus Loves Boba cartoon by Amy Crook
This cheerful octopus shares with me a deep love for boba tea, also known as bubble tea or pearl milk tea. I would totally drink this every day if I could afford the habit, but much like some people’s expensive coffee habits, I’ve kept myself weaned down to once or twice a week for the most part. It makes a good reward for getting out of the house and doing my errands instead of staying inside like the hermit I am, heh.
I have a houseguest coming next week (eek! peoples!), so I foresee a lot of boba in my future. And possibly another Sharpie week, heh.
Octopus Loves Boba, 5″x5″ pen & ink and Copic markers on paper.
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: cartoon, copic marker, for sale, mmmmmboba, octopus, pen and ink, tentacles
Why Tentacles?
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 30 by Amy Crook
I’ve had some time to think about this question since I was asked at the STUDIO Gallery reception (the show’s now over but it was wonderful to be a part of it), and I’ve come up with some answers that are probably true some of the time. Your mileage may vary.
First off, tentacles are fun. I’ve said this before, but it’s probably the top reason I keep up with the series, just because I really enjoy doing it. The scribbly ones are fun to draw, the painted ones are fun to paint, and there’s still new things I can do with them that I haven’t done before.
Now that the shallow answer is out of the way, we can dip our toes a little deeper, though in the end the answer is still about fun. What can I say, I’m a fan of fun.
Being scared is fun.
It is when you know it’s harmless, anyway. And it’s wonderful to explore the edge where scary meets something else. I love things that are morbidly funny, frighteningly beautiful, or creepy-cute, just to name a few. It’s those ragged edges where tentacles are gorgeous and otherworldly and creeping into our thoughts like, well, tentacles, that keeps me coming back not just to the Tentacle Deeps series, but to weeble Cthulhu and logos with skulls on them and pendants of spiderwebs.
Real-life spiders give me the willies, but art that makes them fascinatingly lovely is amazing to me.
I enjoy taking people to that place where you go, “Huh, I never would’ve thought of that.” I like creating something that is, let’s be honest here, not just another fucking landscape. If I’m going to obsessively detail anything, I want it to be something interesting, fascinating and maybe even a little bit repellent, something funny or charming but also morbid and grim.
It may be that that narrows my audience to a very small sliver of people who, like me, enjoy seeing the horrific beauty in the tentacles that slide up from the depths for purposes unknown. But you can kind of guess they aren’t savory, that these strange alien arms reaching upward aren’t straining towards the surface of our world, our pond, our imaginations, for anything that’s good for our health.
But then, since when has anything that’s really fun been all that good for your health?
Tentacle Spiral 1 by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Tentacles, Words Words Words
Tags: info, tentacles, why
Tentacle Deeps 36
Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 36 by Amy Crook
This week’s art is all full of color, and the tentacles are no exception! A soft, granular periwinkle background plays host to rich teal tentacles, seven of which reach up for whatever mysterious light shines down from above. All this rich color is hard to represent online, but I do what I can to be as accurate as possible, at least on my monitor.
It’s hard to believe I’ve painted three dozen of these, but the proof is in the tag. I have a few more planned yet before I give up the series, so don’t fear for Tentacle Tuesday just yet.
Tentacle Deeps 36, 6″x6″ watercolor on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 36, detail, by Amy Crook
Above you can see my tradition tentacles-up detail photo. Below, I’ve temporarily tucked them into an 8″x10″ desk frame for photographing, with my iPhone for reference. If you’re wondering where the sticker went, it’s a whole new phone – the old one had an in-warranty mechanical issue, and so I have a brand new one in its place. New sticker soon, this time with Jellyfish!
Tentacle Deeps 36, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: nfs, periwinkle, teal, tentacle deeps, tentacles
Tentacle Towel 2
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
Tentacle Towel 2 by Amy Crook
I’ve finally decorated another of my cotton floursack dish towels, and shockingly, it’s more tentacles! This time sinuous green with blue like waves in the background. I’ll put the lot up on Etsy eventually, but for now the only way to get them is to donate $25 or more to HALP PLS, my “buy the artist a computer that’s not about to die” fund.
These are an interesting challenge because I don’t really want to oversaturate the cloth with the ink (wasteful!), but it’s hard to do any kind of precision work on the wubbly surface (that’s totally a technical term). I suppose I could get an iron and stuff, but since the markers recommend machine wash cold and hang dry, no ironing, it seems silly.
I’ve started a third towel but it’s of the tiny masochistic crosshatching sort and entirely tentacle-free, so who knows when you’ll see it. I do vaguely plan to do a few that have cartoons on them, but you know me, I always have ideas for tentacles.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
Tags: blue, dish towel, green, sharpie, sharpie marker
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