Archive for the ‘Whimsical and Strange’ Category
Rain Crow
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Rain Crow, art by Amy Crook
A wonderful person who’d just found my site emailed me to ask if I’d done anything with ravens/crows or dragons, and I realized that, despite both of these being themes I really enjoy, I really hadn’t. After doing my little crow sketch the other day, I decided to actually google up what a real crow looks like (yes, still too lazy to look out the window, hush) and used those references to draw this.
All the color in the crow comes from ink pens, which I scribbled with delightful abandon to create the basic shape and color fill on the crow, and then after the salt on the beak had formed, I went back in with plain water and added the gorgeous watercolor-esque wash over the whole crow.
After I put in the ground, I decided it needed something in the sky around it, and the obvious choice for me was salt-pool raindrops in this soft aqua blue pen.
Rain Crow, 7″x5″ pen & ink, watercolor, and salt on paper, nfs (sold).
The real amazing part of this crow is actually the part you can’t actually see except from a very specific angle, this amazing salt formation right over its eye that’s actually in the shape of a fat little black bird, which I photographed framed by one of the water droplets that would later become a salt pool. This formation is incredibly fragile, so I didn’t even put the piece on the scanner, just took photos and have now put it in a shadow-box frame where it will stay protected.
Rain Crow, detail 1, by Amy Crook
The salt on the crow’s beak and eye formed with a really neat oil-slick sheen, which is totally lost in the closeup above, so I took another one for you below:
Rain Crow, detail 2, by Amy Crook
The frame I found is this soft silver shadow box, though I’m keeping my eye out for another frame that would allow you to pick it up and view the piece from the side, which is the best way to see its amazing secret.
Rain Crow, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: blackbird, crow, nfs, pen and ink, salt, sold, watercolor
Cousin Godiva
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
Cousin Godiva by Amy Crook
This idea came to me when I was walking to meet a friend, my (ridiculously) long hair blowing in the breeze. I’ve always been a bit fascinated by the idea of Lady Godiva, and of course Cousin It is a theme anyone with long brown hair will find in their life. The combination of Addams Family and legendary lady was irresistible to my cartooning fingers.
With all the cartoons I do, I’m getting to be an old hand at drawing and coloring hair, so Cousin It was pretty easy overall. It’s the first time I’ve tried to weeble-ify a horse, though!
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: addams family, copic marker, hair, lady godiva, nfs, pen and ink, weeble
2 Comments »
Weeble Wednesday: Moody Businessman
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
Weeble Wednesday: Moody Businessman by Amy Crook
Once long ago I considered trying to make some vector stock art to sell on one of those stock art sites, and this little guy was one of my earliest weebles. Obviously, I’ve since given that up — the finicky requirements of doing vector art for stock uses just drove me batty. My moody businessman lives on as an example of how I really prefer natural media, though I keep myself from totally losing all my skills by occasionally doing something like my Super-Cute Squid.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: cartoon, illustrator, nfs, weeble
2 Comments »
Dance of the Octopi – Fabric!
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
Dance of the Octopi fabric by Amy Crook
You may remember a while back I posted a design called Dance of the Octopi and contemplated how it would make good wallpaper or fabric pattern? Well, I’ve finally gotten around to putting it up on Spoonflower for sale! You can see my little sample above, which is a fat quarter of unironed quilting weight (I don’t own an iron, haha) gathered into a pretty swath for the photo.
I love the dreamy, blue and purple creatures and vibrant green seaweed against the soft blue background, and am still contemplating whether I want to get a few yards and try to sew myself a tentaclicious pair of pajama pants. I suppose I’d have to buy an iron, though…
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: fabric, fish, jellyfish, octopus, squid
2 Comments »
Salted Squid 1
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
Salted Squid 1, art by Amy Crook
More of my experiments with making salt into Actual Things, we have a happy little squid! He’s got his feeder tentacles tucked away, but you can count all 8 arms waving cheerily at you from out of the blue. He’s surrounded by colorful coral, or maybe iridescent bubbles, made using salt that had acquired a coat of paint from other pieces and then been saved. The squid is faintly green, but there was a lot of him to spread out a little bit of watercolor pigment, so you’ll have to forgive his pale complexion.
Salted Squid 1, 5.5″x4.25″ pen & ink, watercolor, and salt on paper.
You can see below how the paper gained some fascinating texture in the places where the salt pools formed — that’s because sometimes the salt crystals form inside the paper instead of on top.
Salted Squid 1, detail, by Amy Crook
This cutie insisted to me that he doesn’t need a frame to be awesome, and I’m inclined to agree — the paper’s got a bit of a curve, and it tucks quite nicely onto a shelf. He enjoyed hanging out with my duckies so much, I’ve left him there for the moment. These days I make so much art that I keep swapping out what’s on display.
Salted Squid 1, in situ, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, pen and ink, salt, squid, tentacles, watercolor
1 Comment »
Goth Vines
Thursday, July 7th, 2011
Goth Vines by Amy Crook, $222
Inspired by the same sort of Tim-Burton-esque design as Saturday’s Deplorable Figurine, this piece combines the fractal salt images with pen-and-ink drawing that was later softened with a wet brush.
Despite the fact that I no longer dress up much, my Goth tastes still permeate a lot of my life, from the Living Dead Doll in her coffin atop my bookshelf to the plethora of Nightmare Before Christmas collectibles around the house. I’ve always enjoyed things that make me say, “That’s so weird!” That sensibility shows up in my work sometimes, like today’s piece, not to mention all the zombies, vampires and other such cartoons.
Goth Vines, 5″x5″ ink and salt on watercolor paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
The now-blue spirals started out as black fountain pen ink, but the water drew out the brown-gold portion of the ink, making golden haloes around the blue-grey centers. The effect gives them an odd glow where they attach to the end of the vines, though actually the vines were drawn in later.
Goth Vines, progress, by Amy Crook
I really think this detail shot I got is gorgeous, especially at extreme closeup – click on it (or nearly any image in my posts) to see it bigger!
Goth Vines, detail, by Amy Crook
I like the way the vines seem to grow out of the narrow black frame I found for them.
Goth Vines, framed, by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black, for sale, goth, pen and ink, salt
1 Comment »
Shrinky Dinks 1
Saturday, June 18th, 2011
Shrinky Dinks, set 1, by Amy Crook
Do you remember Shrink Dinks? I had forgotten all about them until I ran across the Klutz Press book on them, which of course I bought, and then proceeded to store away for years with my art supplies. Well, today is the day they finally got put to use.
I used about 1/3 of a sheet for these guys, and wow, they got soooo wee. Seriously, I was somehow not expecting them to shrink quite so much, but I have future wicked plans for making more. Here you can see them with a dime for size comparison — on my screen, they’re actually larger than they are in real life.
Shrinky Dinks, set 1, by Amy Crook
Dark-colored Sharpies are still quite dark on the semi-transparent plastic, though you can see the colors clearly above with the lights shining through. I’m definitely going to have to experiment with some more of these, and then figure out how to price them and what for. Perhaps a set of ninja stitch markers? Zombie zipper pulls? Cthulhu on a cord for a necklace?
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: cthulhu, ninja, omgwee, shrinky dinks, squid, zombie
4 Comments »
« Or Head Back That Way
More Art This Way »
