Posts Tagged ‘black paper’
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
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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
Gold Spirals 2
Friday, February 8th, 2013
Gold Spirals 2, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
As promised on Monday, here’s the sequel to the first set of self-indulgent spirals. This one used the same 3 colors of gold, but a different duochrome accent. You can see how the layers build on one another from dark to light, with the duochrome adobe paint making a bright coppery splash in the upper right. Despite the sense of impending chaos, I find these rather peaceful to look at, a lovely mix of matte and metallic, deliberate and gestural.
Gold Spirals 2, metallic and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Gold Spirals 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, I’ve shot this from the corner so it looks almost like sunlight filtering down in swirls rather than rays, exaggerating the contrast from dark to light. Below, you can see this painting and its predecessor on my lovely antique desk. I’ve taken the glass out of the frames to help with glare, and you can see my iPhone hanging out for scale.
Gold Spirals 1 & 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, duochrome, for sale, gold, gold spirals, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 46
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
Tentacle Deeps 46 by Amy Crook
Something new for the tentacles today! I used the same metallic watercolors from yesterday’s Gold Spirals, though I painted the background on this a while ago, so they weren’t actually sharing a palette. Then tentacles as usual in an opaque Japanese greenish black, and finally the runes borrowed from The Stars Are Right series crawling in shining red up the surface of each, wrapping around and writhing right along with them. I had originally considered doing the runes in green, but I decided the dull glow of red glitter pen would work better for this painting.
Tentacle Deeps 46, 6″x4″ Japanese and metallic watercolor and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Tentacle Deeps 46, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the way the runes curve and writhe with the tentacles, against the background that fades upward from rose to lemon gold. Below, you can see it tucked safely into a frame where it won’t harm anyone. Just don’t look too closely at the runes if you want to keep all of your sanity intact.
Tentacle Deeps 46, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, for sale, gold, red, stars are right, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
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Gold Spirals 1
Monday, February 4th, 2013
Gold Spirals 1, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
You may have noticed the sad lack of posts last week, which was the result of my winter lull. November and December are such huge months of creativity for me that inevitably the fields needed to lie fallow and have a bit of a creative winter. Last Friday I finally pulled out some black paper and my set of 7 metallic paint powders (they turn to watercolor when water is added, but can also be mixed into oils or acrylics). Then I chose a range of 3 different golds — a warm rose gold, a rich yellow gold and a cool pale gold — and played around.
These are very self-indulgent spirals, loosely inspired by patterns I’ve seen around, the cuffs on the robe of the Theurgy Warden Mouse in my silly FB game addiction, the background pattern on a website I ran across, the colors of the paints themselves. I layered from dark to bright, warm to cool, and then came in at the end and added a very thin, subtle extra set of spirals in duochrome tropic sunrise, which is what’s giving off the green in the scan. It’s only really visible as different from the rest of the gold in the right light, but the scanner usually does a good job of picking that up.
Gold Spirals 1, 6″x4″ metallic and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Gold Spirals 1, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a shot of the spirals in sunlight, each layer of metals catching the light just a little differently. Below, I’ve put it with the other self-indulgent spirals from last Friday, which you’ll see posted this Friday. If you decide you want them both, you can always email me to hold them for you.
Gold Spirals 1 & 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, duochrome, for sale, gold, gold spirals, watercolor
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Fairytale Sky 6
Monday, December 24th, 2012
Fairytale Sky 6 by Amy Crook
This sixth Fairytale Sky painting was another Christmas gift, it seems to be a trend this year! This one’s for a good friend and patron of mine who bought the 1st and 5th paintings out of the series, so it seemed only fitting to paint one specifically for her (as she puts it) “Wall of Amy.” The swirling clouds in this one go from pink to purple depending on the angle, shimmering with a mysterious iridescence that’s just faintly echoed in the moon.
Fairytale Sky 6, 6″x4″ watercolor on paper, nfs.
Fairytale Sky 6, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the way the colors shimmer on the black paper, silver for the stars and pink-purple for the spiraling clouds.
Happy Christmas Eve, or at least Happy Monday. Watch out for wayward Skellingtons impersonating Sandy Claws tonight. ♥
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black paper, fairytale sky, iridescent, japanese watercolor, moon, nfs, watercolor
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