Posts Tagged ‘221b baker street’

221b Becomes Tattoos

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior, by Amy Crook

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior, by Amy Crook

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, interior, by Amy Crook

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, interior, by Amy Crook

Remember these? The wonderful Nicole & Mo wanted a pair of tattoo designs that were part Sherlock, part Holmes, and part Edward Gorey. They took my artwork to their tattoo artist, who promptly told them “no,” hah! I guess I should’ve used bigger pens.

They each got to choose one section to fit on their arms for the final tattoos, which you can see below.

Baker Street Tinies tattoos, design by Amy Crook

Baker Street Tinies tattoos, design by Amy Crook

Nicole, left, has an eerie outside view of 221b Baker Street on her forearm. She had it drawn as it might look if it were a single townhouse instead of part of the larger building, and also transported to a rather spookier version of London. Mo, on the right, got the fireplace at 221b as her tattoo, minus the intricate wallpaper. We moved the skull from another wall to join the skull on the mantel, but otherwise hers is more faithful to Sherlock‘s actual set.

I really love the way their tattoo artist interpreted my delicate linework into her own art form, preserving as much of the detail as possible while keeping the designs clear and clean so they’d age well.

But the best part is that the tattoos went to London! Nicole sent me the best photo, below, of her tattoo outside the building they actually used for 221b Baker Street in the show. Sadly the Sherlock set wasn’t hiding inside for Mo to get a photo of hers. Wouldn’t that be something awesome?

Tattoos go to London!

Tattoos go to London!

Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Words Words Words
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Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, interior

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, interior, drawing by Amy Crook

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, interior, drawing by Amy Crook

Yesterday we saw the outside of 221b Baker street, and today it’s the interior. My Baker Street Tinies series combines the world of the recent Sherlock series from the BBC with the worlds and aesthetics of Edward Gorey.

Nicole and Mo wanted to celebrate their own love and their love of Sherlock Holmes with tattoos, and so we created a unique Gorey-ish vision of 221b Baker Street for each of them. You can’t have the originals — they’re spoken for — but you can get the designs on greeting cards at Etsy!

The wallpaper is straight out of the tv show, as are the fireplace and the antelope skull with its white headphones, though in the show none of these things are on the same wall. John’s Union Jack pillow is sitting on a very Gorey-ish sofa, along with Sherlock’s ubiquitous deerstalker cap. The mantel holds Sherlock’s skull, some mail jackknifed into the wood, a portrait of the pair of them, and abandoned milk with cold tea next to it. Now we know why they always have to buy more milk.

The bookshelf on the right is full of little details, most of which are hard to see without looking at the bigger version.

I really enjoyed working on this pair of drawings for Nicole and Mo, and I hope the tattoos come out beautifully. It was a great challenge to reference so many things in two tiny pieces of art, from the tv series to the books to the art and worlds of Edward Gorey. I’m already thinking about what I’ll do with them next!

Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior, drawing by Amy Crook

Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, exterior, drawing by Amy Crook

Today’s and tomorrow’s art are the newest in my Baker Street Tinies series, which combines the world of the recent Sherlock series from the BBC with the worlds and aesthetics of Edward Gorey.

Like the previous four, these were commissioned, so the originals are already sold and mailed off to their new owners. Nicole and Mo wanted to celebrate their own love and their love of Sherlock Holmes with tattoos, and so we created a unique Gorey-ish vision of 221b Baker Street for each of them. You can’t have the originals, but you can get the designs on greeting cards at Etsy!

This exterior shot is only somewhat faithful to the series — 221b itself has many of the features of Baker Street in the tv show, but the rest of the buildings are fanciful re-imaginings. You can see a shadow of a certain detective in the window of 221b, talking to the skull sitting atop a pile of books in the other window. Someone seems to have left their umbrella outside, but they can catch one of London’s famous black cabs if it rains. There’s even a binary joke hiding in the windows of the middle building.

My personal favorite is the fourth building, which just looks so very sad and shocked at what goes on in its neighborhood.

“Amy was an absolute pleasure to work with. She asked great questions to get at what we wanted out of the artwork, sent us drafts along the way, and worked with us to shape a final product that is absolutely stunning.  She went above and beyond to see that the final product fit our needs, and we had a great experience all around.”

Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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