Archive for the ‘Tentacles’ Category
Blood Moon 5
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014
Blood Moon 5 by Amy Crook
Another Blood Moon made its way into my work queue this month, this time by adding some very subtle tentacles to an older painting in lieu of the previous image. This one is much more eerie than the last one, the bloody color leeching from the shadow to the white parts of the moon, and a second, smaller moon waiting off to one side, ruddy and strange. This sky is not our sky, or perhaps it is our sky many millennia hence, when the stars have become right and Great Cthulhu will rise up from R’lyeh to reclaim the planet for himself.
Blood Moon 5, 5″x7″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Blood Moon 5, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can more clearly see the subtle mist and dark black tentacles rising up from the bottom of the painting, reaching toward the bloody moons. Below, the piece rests in a frame, a little window to some awful future*, or perhaps somewhere very far away indeed.
Blood Moon 5, framed art by Amy Crook
*Perhaps it’s Thundarr the Barbarian’s future, instead of Cthulhu’s. I always did like Ookla.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, blood moon, for sale, japanese watercolor, moon, more cowbell, tentacles, watercolor
Deepest R’lyeh
Saturday, March 8th, 2014
Deepest R’lyeh, abstract art by Amy Crook
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”
(“In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”)-HP Lovecraft
Strange, tentacled things grow in the depths, with the horrible spheres of the ancient city of R’lyeh shining dim and strange through the murky waters. Colors shift and change, and objects seem to flow into one another in ways that the mind can’t quite comprehend. What strange horrors lie just out of sight, waiting for the stars to be right?
Deepest R’lyeh, 5″x5″ watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Deepest R’lyeh, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of one of the strange, multicolored tentacle creatures. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, a window into a world of madness.
Deepest R’lyeh, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: duochrome, for sale, iridescent, more cowbell, watercolor
Meet Me on Saturn
Tuesday, March 4th, 2014
Meet Me on Saturn, watercolor by Amy Crook
If you don’t know what movie I’m referencing here, get thee to Netflix* and watch Beetlejuice!
I decided I wanted to paint some stripey tentacles, so I got out my watercolors and popped in the DVD for inspiration. I decided on the off-color sky with its almost greenish blues and brighter golds after seeing the ghosts ending up on Saturn, and since that’s where the stripey sandworms come from, it seemed appropriate for a title.
I am especially pleased with the way the two outer tentacles are meeting up over the curl of the third. Are they parents and child, all part of the same creature, or is it just a third wheel?
The ways of tentacles are mysterious.
Meet Me on Saturn, 8″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Meet Me on Saturn, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the curl of tentacle, and the details of the delicate shading on and around it. Below, I’ve got the tentacles in a frame. They’re currently in my living room, where I can see them every day.
Meet Me on Saturn, framed art by Amy Crook
*Not that I have any idea if Netflix has it.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: beetlejuice, for sale, stripes, tentacles, watercolor
Shaken Not Stirred
Tuesday, February 18th, 2014
“Maybe I should’ve gone with stirred…”
Shaken Not Stirred, a Cthulhu parody comic by Amy Crook
When I was working on illustrations for my Cthulhu Holiday Fun Book, I wanted something for New Years that was like a pinup, only with Cthulhu. I actually googled up some cocktail pinups, and while I found a few delightful girls in martini and Champagne glasses, it was the one perky pinup in a shaker that caught my eye.
Alas, Cthulhu didn’t realize that he’d be the one shaken, and I think he got a little more than he bargained for.
I made him into a greeting card for my Etsy shop, because sometimes drunk Cthulhu is the right thing for the occasion. Especially if that occasion involves someone partying too hard and needing your, ahem, “sympathy.”
Shaken Not Stirred, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.
Drunk Cthulhu card on Etsy by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Card Design, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: cocktail shaker, copic marker, cthulhu, drunkthulhu, etsy, for sale, pen and ink, weeble, weeble cthulhu
Box of Hearts
Sunday, January 12th, 2014
Box of Hearts, a Cthulhu Valentine by Amy Crook
When Cthulhu gives you a big box of hearts, he really gives you… hearts. Ew. They may be small and squishy, but he finally found a way to show his love!
The card delightfully frames the image with the words:
“Cthulhu wanted to give you his* hearts
*not all hearts dedicated to Cthulhu before acquisition”
You can give your love a Valentine this year from my Etsy Shop. Assuming they’re the sort to be wooed by, well, this.
Box of Hearts, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.
Cthulhu Valentine by Amy Crook on Etsy
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Card Design, Floating Gallery, Tentacles, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: anatomical heart, copic marker, cthluhu, etsy, for sale, heart, pen & ink, valentine
Shrimp-Crossed Lovers
Saturday, January 11th, 2014
Shrimp-Crossed Lovers, comic by Amy Crook
The fates are conspiring to keep these two lovers apart, but they’ve used their shrimp treats to express their devotion. Will someone buy them both and put them in the same tank, or are they doomed to live forever alone?
You can get a Valentine at Etsy to show that long-distance love how much you miss them. With shrimp.
Shrimp-Crossed Lovers, 7″x5″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.
Shrimp-Crossed Lovers Valentine at Etsy by Amy Crook
Categories: Card Design, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: copic marker, etsy, nfs, octopus, pen and ink, sold, squid, valentine
Pollen
Monday, November 4th, 2013
Pollen by Amy Crook
Continuing with my new tradition of reworking old art, this piece has very little resemblance to its forebear. The soft black paper is entirely covered in a dark, velvety red like old blood, and each little salt pool has a halo of iridescent garnet. The salt pools, originally a dull pink from the Himalaya sea salt, have been dyed a bright shimmering blue to match the tentacles. They reminded me of glowing motes of pollen drifting on the breeze, which is how I got the name.
I’ve got to admit, I really hope I don’t ever have to inhale these alien grains of pollen. I’d hate to see what kind of allergy attack they’d produce — or find blue tentacles growing in my brain.
Pollen, 5″x5″ salt and watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Pollen, detail, by Amy Crook
The big central crystal in this formation refused to be dyed blue, so it’s the only bit of the original pink left in the piece. Above, you can see the shimmering iridescent paint fading into the deeper background color — a natural-mineral paint called, appropriately, bloodstone. Below, the piece has been tucked into a frame with some extra tentacles to make it feel at home.
Pollen, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, for sale, iridescent, more cowbell, salt, tentacles, watercolor
« Or Head Back That Way
More Art This Way »
