Posts Tagged ‘black paper’
Wordless Wednesday: Arches Cover Black
Wednesday, April 24th, 2013
Technically, Arches Cover black is a printmaking paper, soft and thick to take deep impressions of printing plates, and absorbent enough to grab and hold the ink. I’ve been using both the black and white versions of this paper for watercolors, though, because I’m an art supply rebel. Also, they’re cool.
If you’re reading this in an email, think about clicking the red title above to take you to the website, because email breaks all my pretty formatting.
Categories: Daily Art
Tags: black paper, wordless weds
Gibbous Moon
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
Gibbous Moon, watercolor by Amy Crook
It’s Earth Day, so of course I contrarily have a moon for you. Curling silvery mist wreaths upward, trying to reach the moon that’s a lot farther away than it looks, while blue stars shimmer in the far distance. The moon itself is just a little warm and golden, with the color bleeding strangely into the dark, making you wonder just what’s going on up there. Eerily beautiful.
Gibbous Moon, 7″x5″ watercolor and iridescent watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Gibbous Moon, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the moon itself, warm and slightly sinister where it floats in the middle distance. Below, a few curls of iridescent mist swim into your view.
Gibbous Moon, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And finally, you can see it slipped into a frame and hanging out on my writing desk with my iPhone, so you can see how it looks in the wild.
Gibbous Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, fairytale sky, for sale, iridescent, moon, spirals, watercolor
1 Comment »
Red 3
Tuesday, March 12th, 2013
Red 3, 7″x5″ abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
This piece is all about courting chaos. I made some artistic choices at the start, and then once it got to a certain point, I stood back and let the process take over, making it a weird collaboration between artist and entropy. There’s an amazing wealth of detail and nuance in the way the paint, paper, and water interacted as they dried. I considered doing something more with it, like tentacles or tiny fandom, but I didn’t want to cover up all that lovely nuance.
Red 3, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the upper lefthand corner in detail, the way the different colors flowed and pooled and settled as the paint dried in one of the wettest parts of the painting. Below, the painting is hanging out with my iPhone, making it look cool.
Red 3, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, for sale, japanese watercolor, red
Ghost Moon
Monday, March 4th, 2013
Ghost Moon by Amy Crook
I can’t honestly remember now which came first, the Ghost Spirals Bookmark or the trees in this piece. I definitely painted them on the same day, but then I came back to this later and added in the moon, and then in a third pass I added iridescent blue stars with the purple meteor, a shine of subtle iridescent green to the treetops, and silver on the moon.
I’m sometimes torn about using so much iridescent and metallic paint. On the one hand, it feels a bit gimmicky (and can’t be made into prints effectively), but on the other hand I think the pieces are more beautiful with the shimmer and shine. And since the real point of my art is to put more beautiful things into the world, I’ve decided to go with what feels right.
Ghost Moon, 7″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Ghost Moon, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a bit of the green shimmer on the trees, the silver shine of the moon, and the blue and purple stars, shooting and otherwise. Below, I’ve got the piece in a frame, so you can see how it sizes up to my iPhone.
Ghost Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black paper, for sale, iridescent, japanese watercolor, moon, shooting star, spirals, tree, watercolor
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Ghost Spirals Bookmark
Wednesday, February 27th, 2013
Ghost Spirals Bookmark by Amy Crook
It’s always interesting to me to see the way the Japanese watercolors sink and fade into the black paper as they dry, losing some of their opacity and leaving behind a complex texture of paint and paper. These spirals looked ghostly to me in the way some of them faded almost to translucency, which is where they got their name.
Ghost Spirals Bookmark, 4″x1.5″ Japanese watercolor on paper, nfs (sold).
Ghost Spirals Bookmark, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the delicate traceries of dried paint within the thick, translucent spirals. Below, you can see this bookmark hanging out with my book, just waiting to find a new book and a new home.
Ghost Spirals Bookmark, with book, by Amy Crook
(book not included, you wouldn’t want it anyway, it’s a boring book)
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, bookmark, japanese watercolor, spirals
1 Comment »
Filigree Moon 3
Friday, February 22nd, 2013
Filigree Moon 3 by Amy Crook
This is sort of a Slytherin moon in silver and green, with a few green glittery spirals hiding in among the silver as well as a green halo around the whole moon. Although you can’t see them in the scan above, there’s little flecks of silver and green glitter in the black sky background like distant, tiny stars that catch the light at just the right angle.
Filigree Moon 3, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Filigree Moon 3, detail, by Amy Crook
You can see not only the green glitter in with the silver, but a few little glimmering stars out in the black velvet space.
Filigree Moon 3, work in progress part 1, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the moon before it got its decorative filigree. I love the subtle textures as the green and white paint mixed and moved around on the paper, making formations like real moon geography. Below, you can see the silver spirals about halfway done, the paper angled to catch the light and really make the glitter shine.
Filigree Moon 3, work in progress part 2, by Amy Crook
And finally we have the framed photo, showing how subtle the filigree can be from some angles. Despite the slightly odd angle of the torn paper, it fits perfectly into a standard 5″ square frame.
Filigree Moon 3, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, filigree, for sale, glitter gel pen, green, moon, silver, watercolor
Ampersand
Thursday, February 14th, 2013
Ampersand, calligraphic illumination by Amy Crook
I find it appropriate that my Ampersand has fallen on Valentine’s Day. The penultimate character in my alphabet, this black cut paper ampersand floats above the intricately detailed green and gold circuit board background like a particularly gothic microchip. This whole series has been about using modern, nontraditional materials to explore a Medieval art form, and so the ampersand ties it all together.
Ampersand, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor and glitter gel pen with Arches cover black paper and glue on paper.
Ampersand, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the intricate pattern of interlocking gold on top of the bright circuit board green watercolor, and the three-dimensional ampersand itself really stands out, floating on its spikey feet. Below, in honor of the holiday, I’ve put U & I together.
U & I, framed calligraphy by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Illuminated Alphabet, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: alphabet, black paper, calligraphy, collage, for sale, glitter gel pen, gold, green, illumination, watercolor
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