Archive for the ‘Tentacles’ Category
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
Tentacle Deeps 35
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 35, watercolor by Amy Crook
Someone asked me at the gallery on Saturday why I like tentacles, and I didn’t have a really good answer. I like painting them a lot, in part because it’s an interesting combination of spontaneous and planned art, in that the tentacles can go all over the place but keep a certain smooth taper to them while they do, and I always try to get a certain distribution of shapes and sizes in so that the piece itself is aesthetically pleasing as well as creepy.
This particular paper isn’t really meant to be watercolor paper, and it absorbed the paint without letting it float on top at all, giving a stripey quality to the blue gradation in the background. The paper itself has a lot of little dotted inclusions that add texture to the piece, and the tentacles themselves are painted in Japanese sumi-e ink rather than watercolor to take better advantage of the paper’s absorbency.
Tentacle Deeps 35, 8″x10″ ink and watercolor on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 35, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the shine off the very base of the tentacles where the black sumi-e ink is the thickest. Below, the piece waits in its frame, taking up nearly my whole tiny writing desk as it poses with my iPhone for scale.
Tentacle Deeps 35, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, sumi-e ink, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Jellyfish Bookmark 2
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
Jellyfish Bookmark 2
by Amy Crook
More tentacles for Thursday! This bookmark is extra thick, drawn on black mat board rather than the paper I usually use. I drew a rainbow of jellyfish on here, and saved the gold for mysterious floating motes of something in the black depths.
This is the smallest of this week’s offerings, though the paper’s quite thick, making it a very solid little piece of art.
Jellyfish Bookmark 2, 0.75″x6″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).
Jellyfish Bookmark 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above you can see the sparkle of the glittery pen I used for this set of jellyfish. Below, they’re hanging out with a book to show you how small and unassuming this bookmark is. Just the thing for a small and unassuming book full of secret awesome.
Jellyfish Bookmark 2, with book, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: bookmark, glitter gel pen, jellyfish, nfs, sold, tentacles
Tentacle Bookmark 2
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Tentacle Bookmark 2
by Amy Crook
Tentacle Tuesday meets Bookmark Week once again! Zoisite green and a satiny black combine with thick textured paper to make a very nice bookmark. This one should stand up to all sorts of abuse, though the soft hand-torn edges might get even softer as time goes on.
Tentacle Bookmark 2, 2.25″x8″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).
Tentacle Bookmark 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the light shining off the thick black paint at the base of the tentacles. Below, a standard-sized hardback book shows you just how big the tentacles are. Definitely not tentacles for the faint of heart!
Tentacle Bookmark 2, with book, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: bookmark, tentacles, watercolor
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Tentacle Deeps 34
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 34, watercolor by Amy Crook
I love the way these experimental tentacles came out, with the rich blue at the core fading to iridescent green and then finally the salt that looks almost coppery compared to the cool interior. These are tentacles reaching out from some sort of translucent blob, perhaps a Shoggoth resting at the bottom of his cell, trying to get out and eat his creators.
Omnomnom!
Tentacle Deeps 34, 4″x6″ salt and watercolor on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 34, detail, by Amy Crook
Above you can see a detail of the tentacles forming out of their base and reaching upwards and away from you. I think this image is quite nifty, so I made an iPhone wallpaper for you to share it with me. Below, the usual frame-up job, with my iPhone for scale only.
Tentacle Deeps 34, framed art by by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, blue, for sale, green, iridescent, salt, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
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