Archive for the ‘Tentacles’ Category
Tentacle Deeps 18
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 18 by Amy Crook
More tentacles! I started this piece with salt that had already been gently used and had a coating of color on the outside, arranging them in a pattern that made me think of balloons floating up or perhaps fluff blowing off a dandelion. Once I got the idea to attach them to tentacles, however, I couldn’t resist! I used several shades of red and orange ink to create the tentacles, and of course my scanner hates red dyes and so a lot of the subtle gradation you can see in person is lost.
I decided to create the “deeps” part of the painting with simple crosshatching, electing to go with a fairly loose style which often ran into the tentacles, which makes them just a bit more unreal. I do wonder what the salt pools represent in this context, attached at the end of each vivid red tentacle. Egg sacs? Sensory organs? Lunch?
Tentacle Deeps 18, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 18, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black, crosshatching, for sale, pen and ink, red, salt, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Squidtini
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Squidtini by Amy Crook
My friend, G, is a big fan of both gin and squid, so one night I drew up this little guy with her in mind. He’s even made friends with the olive, which he’s got clutched in his feeder tentacles, though the gin’s given him a bit of a blush on his fins and cheeks. This little squid is sloshed!
Squidtini, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper.
I think it would make a great invitation to a New Year’s dinner party, so I made cards for my Etsy shop.
Squidtini, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: card, copic marker, etsy, for sale, martini, pen and ink, squid
Cthulhu’s Gift
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Cthulhu’s Gift by Amy Crook
I’ve been working on holiday cards again this week, and Cthulhu really wants you to like his gift. I decided to make a rather generic gift for the original, and then I drew a page of holiday dingbats — including a delightfully gruesome spike bow of a sort I’ve actually bought and put on gifts myself (minus the blood).
Cthulhu’s Gift, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper.
Cthulhu’s Holiday Gift by Amy Crook
The original is, of course, the first version, since this one exists courtesy of Photoshop, but I find I’m rather fond of his baubles. I want a tentacle glass ornament!
This is what he looks like in a frame, though the original won’t be framed unless the buyer requests it for an additional fee.
Cthulhu’s Gift, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: copic marker, cthulhu, for sale, holiday, lovecraft, pen and ink, tentacles
Squid in a Scarf
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Squid in a Scarf by Amy Crook
It’s this year’s holiday card! I decided to do something extra silly, so not only is our little squid freezing, he comes in colors. You can see his feeder tentacles wrapped around all 8 arms as he shivers in his hat and scarf a bit anxiously. I decided on a chilly ocean blue for his main body color, which works well with all the color schemes I’ve tried so far, from Hogwarts houses to TARDIS blue and white.
Squid in a Scarf, 5″x5″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper.
Check out my Etsy Shop to get him as a card, print, or even buy the original.
Squid in a Scarf, original art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
Tags: card art, copic marker, customize me, etsy, for sale, pen and ink, squid
Jellyfish Deeps
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
Jellyfish Deeps by Amy Crook
Most of my salt pieces come together in an almost Zen-like way, with the long wait for the salt crystals to form and then a quick flurry of activity as I work with the results. This piece started out with the watercolor background, which took a long time to dry, giving the mixed paint time to separate out into its component colors in some places, while staying a murky purple-black in others. Pen and ink and salt came next, and then the jellyfish in their white gel pen currents swam in last.
It’s interesting how sometimes you can keep adding things to a piece until you ruin it, but other times you have to keep going until it gets past a certain point and turns itself around into something worthwhile. My friend Jeff (who paints wargaming miniatures) calls it “the ass point,” where the piece looks like total ass until you get it to a certain point, and then suddenly all its potential starts to shine through.
I find this point more intimidating than the blank page, since it represents a lot of lost work if it never gets past that point, but there’s a certain satisfaction to having pulled a piece past the ass point and turned it into something I’d want to admit I created.
Jellyfish Deeps, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, nfs, (sold).
Jellyfish Deeps, detail, by Amy Crook
This one has a lot of detail that just doesn’t show up until you really look at it, from the colors glowing through the white gel pen to the strange salt pools and their range of crystal sizes and densities. You can see it in its frame, below, with my iPhone for size reference.
Jellyfish Deeps, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
Tags: crosshatching, for sale, gel pen, jellyfish, pen and ink, salt, tentacles, watercolor
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Tentacle Deeps 17
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 17 by Amy Crook
Yet more tentacles for Tuesday! I used a pure wash of zoisite watercolor, and its granular quality dried in a rather squamous, scale-like texture, subtle and matte with a quality to the paint almost like pastel. The dusty paint mixed in with the pure Sharpie ink of the tentacles, softening the sharp blacks, but I wanted a bit more so I took a grey brush pen and added in a second layer of tentacles behind the first.
Tentacle Deeps 17, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper.
I have to admit, I think every single one of these looks cool photographed from this angle. Plus, you can really see the texture of the paint and paper, here.
Tentacle Deeps 17, detail, by Amy Crook
I always like how they look like they’re rising up from some other dimension held within the frame, too. What can I say, I’m easily pleased by tentacles.
Tentacle Deeps 17, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, sharpie, squamous, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 16
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 16 by Amy Crook
It’s Tuesday and that means tentacles! This is painted on a handmade postcard from India, just like Tentacle Deeps 12 & Tentacle Deeps 13.
I actually use the same two colors of paint for the wash on this as yesterday’s art, but the fade is much looser, and there’s no pure pigment, just different mixtures. When I went to put the tentacles on, it struck me that I hadn’t done a horizontal one yet, and so I used the granular lunar black watercolor to paint in these tentacles. The paint settled into the groovs in the paper, emphasizing the texture of the paper and letting the background color glow through the black as though the tentacles are strangely translucent.
Tentacle Deeps 16, ~4″x6″ watercolor on handmade paper.
I can’t resist taking these bottom-up shots whenever I’m photographing these tentacle pieces these days, even though there’s no salt at all on this one.
Tentacle Deeps 16, detail, by Amy Crook
Here we are, a photo of the framed piece with my iPhone providing scale.
Tentacle Deeps 16, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, orange, red, tentacle deeps, watercolor
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