Archive for the ‘Tentacles’ Category
Tentacle Deeps 5
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 5 by Amy Crook
And then there were five! I’m not sure how this morphed into such a big series, but I’ve enjoyed playing with the variations on a theme.
I did this one the same day I inked all the tiny details in my Gorey-esque illustration from Monday’s post, and I used the same tiny, long lines in the background here as in the background of John’s wallpaper. In this piece, the original wash was a very soft red-to-orange fade, so I chose my vivid orange fountain pen to carefully draw in the texture in the background. The pen is nearly the same color as the border of pooled watercolor around the top edge, so it really meshed well with the paint and brought the whole piece together.
I think this might be my favorite of the series so far.
Tentacle Deeps 5, 5″x5″ pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
Tentacle Deeps 5, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: nfs, orange, pen and ink, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 4
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 4 by Amy Crook
Yet another installment of tentacles, this one exploring a couple of different techniques than the previous three.
I got the paper itself damp this time before doing the greyish wash, and then dripped in a bit of colour here and there to add dimension to the grey. Then I washed again over the whole paper, which muted the bright white borders and caused some but not all of the wash to bleed around the body of the image. Since the paper’s recycled, there’s also a bit of colour bleed-through from the inkjet printing on the back, which is covered by the darkest part of the wash but still adds some depth.
Then, once it was dry, instead of painting in the tentacles, I got out a blue-black pen and used obsessive crosshatching to create them. It’s always interesting and rather haphazard to create shapes like this freehand out of texture, without the comfort of penciling things in first, so the tentacles seem a bit less graceful to me this time around, and there’s no second or third layer of faded background shapes. Instead, I used a dark red to highlight the red blotches in the wash, and then slipped dark green spirals subtly into the tentacle shapes themselves — you can click on the image to see it bigger, which lets you really see all the details.
Tentacle Deeps 4, 5″x7″ ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
I also made another computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper for this one — please let me know if you download them.
Tentacle Deeps 4, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, grey, pen and ink, spirals, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Lovecraftian Wallpaper
Friday, March 4th, 2011
Lovecraftian Wallpaper pattern by Amy Crook
My second and much sillier wallpaper experiment, I decided to try a repeating motif of tentacles and eldritch horror, or at least creepy eyes. If you click on this one you can see it larger and with a bit more vertical repeat as well, to get a better idea of how it would look staring out at you from your walls.
Definitely not a bedroom pattern for those prone to nightmares, anyway!
I think it might make fun pyjamas, though I’d probably make the background green darker and the eye a properly evil yellow, were I to bother getting a Spoonflower sample. I keep thinking it’d be fun to have my own designs on my pyjama bottoms, and then I remember that means I’d have to actually sew them. Sad, really.
Lovecraftian Pyjama pattern by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Tentacles
Tags: cthulhu, nfs, wallpaper
Tentacle Deeps 3
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 3 by Amy Crook
It’s officially a series now because there’s 3 of them, so I gave them their own tag. I’ve made up some more blanks for different ones, greens and reds, so expect a few more before I get tired of painting them.
This one was a different sort of paper, recycled watercolor greeting cards, and I painted over the faint image with rich, opaque Japanese sumi-e inks. I let the paper mostly dry, and then made a mixture of black and green. Between the paper and the wetness of the inks, the tentacles tended to pick up on the color beneath more than the previous two pieces, giving them a faded feeling. I also shaded the paint using blue-violet to blue-green from left to right rather than vertically shading from light to dark, and covered the whole page rather than leaving a white border, so the whole piece has a slightly different feel to it than the others.
Tentacle Deeps 3, 5″x7″ ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
I also made another computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper for this one — please let me know if you download them.
Tentacle Deeps 3, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, iphone, tentacle deeps, wallpaper, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 2
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 2 by Amy Crook
Apparently, this is a series! Who knew?
I had another blue wash sitting around from my last foray at watercolors, and this one, too, seemed to just really want tentacles.I mixed a little green into the black again, but once again it seems to have been swallowed up as the paint dried, though I saw glimmers of it when it was wet.
I used a bigger brush on a smaller piece this time and I’m not sure I liked the coarser control, so of course I’ll have to try again. Perhaps green, or something in a rich blood red?
Tentacle Deeps 2, 4″x6″ watercolor on watercolor postcard.
I didn’t bother with wallpapers on this one, but if you’d like them, just let me know.
Tentacle Deeps 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, tentacle deeps, watercolor
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Tentacle Deeps 1
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 1 by Amy Crook
This piece started as an experiment with the soft blue wash, which I let sit around for weeks and weeks while I contemplated what to do with it. The other day I had a flash of what to do, and then it took me a few more days to take the time to sit down with my watercolors and add the sinuous tentacles rising up from the deeps.
I’m quite pleased with the results, the feeling of depth and the texture of the soft paper and how it interacted with the watercolors (which are really Japanese sumi-e inks, for the most part). I did mix some green in with the blacks to set it off from the teal wash, but I think that in the end the wash won out and the whole thing has a lovely monochromatic feel.
Tentacle Deeps, 5.5″x7.5″ watercolor on watercolor paper.
I also made a computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper for your downloading pleasure (right-click or ctrl-click to save). Well, okay, I made them for my own use, but I figured it’d be nice to share.
Tentacle Deeps 1, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, iphone, tentacle deeps, wallpaper, watercolor
1 Comment »
Super Cute Squid Sketch
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
Super Cute Squid sketch by Amy Crook
This little cutie is an experiment in taking the cute squids I usually draw all the way to extra super awesomely cute. His chubby little tentacles and tiny, beadlike eyes just make me want to hug him!
You’ll probably see him again once I’ve taken the time to finish him, maybe as vector art rather than by hand, just for variety.
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Works In Progress
Tags: nfs, pencil, squid, wip
3 Comments »
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