Archive for the ‘Tentacles’ Category
Tentacle Deeps 11
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 11 by Amy Crook
I tried something a little different with today’s tentacles, and I think the results are really interesting.
The background was a wash of periwinkle gouache with large already-paint-stained salt crystals set int the wet paint and left to dry. The resulting spots seemed to me like excellent starting points for some tentacles, so it looks like they’re each emerging from their own interdimensional portal. I went for a lighter color of tentacles, a deep green instead of the opaque black or blue-black I usually use, giving the whole thing a sense less of depths than heights.
Tentacle Deeps 11, 5″x7″ watercolor and salt on watercolor paper.
Below you can see a close-up of the way the paint and salt reacted to each other, and the way they layered when a tentacle was painted over one of the salt “portals.”
Tentacle Deeps 11, detail, by Amy Crook
And here you can see it in its lovely new frame:
Tentacle Deeps 11, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, periwinkle, salt, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Lovecrafty
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
Lovecrafty by Amy Crook
While some pieces come together with effortless synchronicity, others are a struggle from start to finish. This piece was definitely one of the latter, but I’m finally happy with the end result. There’s just something that really amuses me in the way it seems like a cross between Lovecraftian horror and a 12-year-old girl’s diary.
The grey writing is done with a brush pen usually used for shading, the barely-legible words are a couple of especially creepy quotes from HP Lovecraft’s fiction. Blank spaces on the left were filled in with single words or shorter phrases, giving the whole thing a sense of mad, frantic writing, the deranged mind getting out what it’s seen. Or, possibly more insanity-inducing, the inner feelings of a pre-teen.
The images themselves are layered, everything from printer ink to sharpie marker, watercolor to pen and ink. I used water to blur things left and right and there’s even a tiny bit of salt texture, though it doesn’t take very well on this type of paper. I considered adding some tentacle monster green into the mix to dull down the overall cheeriness of the palette, but in the end I couldn’t resist the juxtaposition of color and intent.
Lovecrafty, 5″x7″ pen & ink, watercolor, Sharpie marker and salt on paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, quote, salt, sharpie, watercolor
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Tentacle Deeps 10
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 10 by Amy Crook
Tuesday is a great day for tentacles, don’t you think?
The rich, bloody red of this paint seemed to cry out for dark, velvety tentacles, so I did just two layers and then snuck in something new, a background effect with salt and an opaque yellow paint that created red salt crystals where it overlapped the background, and subtle white ones on the edges of a few of the tentacles. The extra detail seems to increase the feeling of eldritch horror, as though madness lies just around the corner if one could comprehend the meaning behind it all.
Tentacle Deeps 10, 5″x5″ watercolor and salt.
I’ve also made an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper out of this one, as well, enjoy!
Tentacle Deeps 10, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, red, salt, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 9
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 9 by Amy Crook
Once again, I bring you tentacles for Tuesday!
This watercolor piece uses double the salt for its effects. First I added rich texture and some orangey-gold color to the background with the large, coarse salt crystals. Later I used smaller Kosher salt on the tentacles themselves, putting the salt on after painting each one to get the maximum effect.
Something about this background made me want paler tentacles, so there’s less layers as a result. The salt texture is more dramatically visible, making the tentacles look as though they’ve got barnacles attached from years under the deep oceans.
Tentacle Deeps 9, 4″x6″ watercolor and salt.
I’ve also made an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper out of this one, as well, enjoy!
Tentacle Deeps 9, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, salt, tentacle deeps, watercolor, yellow
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Cthulhu Moleskine Volant
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Cthulhu Moleskine Volant customized by Amy Crook
The green of this Moleskine’s original cover just reminded me of the tentacles of an Elder God for some reason. Here he’s shown rising up over a field of silvery stars, or perhaps he’s slumbering with a blanket of the vast sky to keep him warm in the depths of R’lyeh.
Cthulhu, Moleskine Volant customized with oil paint Sharpie markers, nfs (sold).
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: cthulhu, etsy, moleskine, nfs, oil paint markers, sharpie, sold
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Squid a la Gorey
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Squid a la Gorey by Amy Crook
The watery environs of this squid were directly inspired by the cover of The Raging Tide: Or, the Black Doll’s Imbroglio by Edward Gorey. I didn’t even realize it was out of print until just now, though, oops.
I’ve been wanting to move away from doing just Sherlock cartoons in this style, and so I went to one of my other dorky fannish loves, cephalopods. This little squid looks like something unfortunate is about to befall him, which seems appropriate for something done in Edward Gorey’s style. Perhaps the black doll will come falling through the water, or maybe the squid will be called upon to help fill out another set of childhood obituaries. “G is for Gretchen, pulled down by a squid,” perhaps?
Squid a la Gorey, 7″x5″ pen and ink on 8.5″x5.5″ drawing paper.
You can also get this piece printed on a handmade card on Etsy.
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: edward gorey, for sale, pen and ink, squid, studio gallery
Weeble Wednesday: Sculpey Cthulhu
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Weeble Cthulhu, Cultists, and Extra Tentacles, sculptures by Amy Crook
Cthulhu has been summoned into this dimension! You can see that his otherwordly color confuses my digital camera into giving it white highlights, though in reality he’s quite matte in appearance. The cultists who summoned him seem to have gotten a bit more than they bargained for, as one’s in his grip and another got scooped up by his tentacled friends.
A friend of my commissioned Cthulhu for his girlfriend’s birthday, originally intending it as a cake topper. Unfortunately he turned out too heavy for the cake, but I’m told he’ll end up in a place of honor with his cultists and tentacles. Making something that big with Sculpey was a real challenge, and I ended up making a core of aluminum foil over which the sculpey was laid, since they recommend you not try to make or bake anything out of it that’s more than 1/2″ thick. Given that he’s about 5″ overall, that wouldn’t have worked out too well!
Sculpey Cthulhu by Amy Crook
As you can see, his color seems to baffle the camera even in the shade, the vibrant green-screen green just a little too much for its pixely heart.
Sculpey Cultists by Amy Crook
Each of the cultists was done with a different skin and hair color, and they’re about an inch tall, though I made sure to vary the height as well. Cthulhu is a multicultural destroyer of souls!
Sculpey Tentacles by Amy Crook
The tentacles started out rather flat, and then I figured out ways to drape and pose them during baking so they could have some extra dimension when they were emerging from the depths of R’lyeh, or the cake. Whichever.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: cthulhu, nfs, sculpey, weeble
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