Posts Tagged ‘blue’
Snowflakes
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Snowflakes by Amy Crook, $222
After seeing the lovely crystal formations in Aglow, I decided to test out what I could get with blue ink and the same paper. The effect was extremely simple but quite lovely, so I decided to keep it as is rather than muddle it up with anything else.
Snowflakes, 5″x5″ pen and ink and salt on watercolor paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
Here’s a shot of one of the snowflakes up close.
Snowflakes, detail, by Amy Crook
It’s enhanced well by a very simple black frame.
Snowflakes, framed art by Amy Crook
I’ve put a detailed set of shot of the progress behind the cut, so you can see how the snowflakes grew.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, for sale, pen and ink, salt
1 Comment »
Ten Thousand Sparklepoints
Thursday, June 16th, 2011
Ten Thousand Sparklepoints by Amy Crook, $199
This sparkly, shiny bit of art is dedicated to the wonderful Havi Brooks and Tara Swiger, both of whom use the term ‘sparklepoints’ in many brilliant and encouraging ways.
All the drawing was done with glitter gel pens, and of course the salt pools are their usual glittery selves, so the title made itself obvious to me early on. It’s definitely the sparkliest thing I’ve done to date, though Curiosity comes a close second — I wonder what it is about the really girly-pretty ones that makes me want to write on them. This one has the title at the top in copper glitter gel pen to match the starburst shapes scattered amongst the lines and spirals of the background.
Ten Thousand Sparklepoints, 7″x5″ mixed media on watercolor paper, $199, framed, with free shipping.
You can really see the light shining off the pen lines and salt below.
Ten Thousand Sparklepoints, detail, by Amy Crook
This piece will be shipped in a simple black plastic frame, all set to go up on your wall or lean in a bookshelf.
Ten Thousand Sparklepoints, framed, by Amy Crook, $199
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, for sale, glitter gel pen, pen and ink, salt, sparkly, watercolor
Iridescence
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Iridescence by Amy Crook, $499
Despite the fact that very little about this piece is shiny aside from the salt crystals, it reminds me of the gentle iridescence of bird wings, and that’s where it gets its title. Much like Badlands from last week, this piece has some unusually tall and interesting salt formations, this time created on purpose by using big salt in little puddles.
The other day I mixed up some teal-black paint, and found ways to use it on several pieces but not, ironically, the piece it was originally intended for, which turned out to need more drying time before it was ready for the next step. Here it’s been watered down and then had extra drips and swirls of green and blue added in, which then flowed and dried in the beautiful color patterns you see here.
Iridescence, 7″x5″ watercolor, ink and salt on watercolor paper, $499, framed, with free shipping.
This piece is framed in a shadowbox to protect the salt crystals, and sitting on my bookshelf taking up space I’ll likely need to use for art pretty soon.
Iridescence, framed, by Amy Crook
I love the way some of the salt formations are secretly hollow inside, growing walls around an empty inner space where the original salt crystal sat. This one has another formation gamely trying to start off the top corner, as well, the color dense where the ink was concentrated.
Iridescence, detail 1, by Amy Crook
And this little ziggurat is a textbook formation of simple square crystals.
Iridescence, detail 2, by Amy Crook
As an added bonus to those of you who read this far down, have an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper. I’m using the computer one myself right now!
After using the iPhone wallpaper for a while, I realized that, while it did have my signature on it, it didn’t have my favorite part of the image, the part Molly called a “dragon’s head.” So, for those of you seeing this many days after posting (yay you!), here’s a different iPhone wallpaper.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: blue, for sale, green, iridescence, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
1 Comment »
Blue Salt Pools
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
Blue Salt Pools by Amy Crook
I’ve been experimenting more with these salt pieces,using different inks to make the original drawings, more or less salt or water to make the pools, and different patterns and colors of watercolor along with them (and even one with no watercolor at all). This one uses a watered-down midnight blue to go with the lighter blue salt pools, and you can see one where the ink really permeated the salt and gave it almost an electric blue feel. Overall I really like the way this one came out, with the color gathering the darkest where the paint brushed along the outer edges of the salt crystals.
Blue Salt Pools, 7″x5″ salt and watercolor on watercolor paper, $299 framed, with free shipping.
I always feel like the scans, while technically accurate, don’t really capture the sparkly, dynamic, three-dimensional feel of these pieces. The salt grows onto the paper, crystallizing with the color from the ink to create these textured alien landscapes, and no photo or scan can ever quite convey that.
Blue Salt Pools, detail, by Amy Crook
It will ship tucked safely in its frame, so you don’t have to worry about anything untoward happening to it in transit.
Blue Salt Pools, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: blue, for sale, salt, watercolor
3 Comments »
Eye of the Moon
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Eye of the Moon by Amy Crook
The same day I did the tea washes, I did a few watercolor washes as well, just simple pale circles to do something with later. When I took this one back out the other night, it reminded me of an eye, but also of a pale, cool moon floating in its own gentle glow. The paper around the circle is a bit warped, giving it a touch of subtle halo, which you can just barely see in the image above.
I used the same crosshatch pattern as I did with Blood Moon, only this time I used a deep blue-black rather than the bright red. Instead of adding texture with a contrasting color of ink, I put an abstractly slitted pupil into the center of the white “eye” that gave the whole image an ornate feeling. The high contrast between background and foreground gives this piece much more deliberateness, and this thinner sketchbook paper also held the ink better, with less bleeding.
Eye of the Moon, 7″x5″ watercolor and pen & ink on paper.
I took a progress shot with my iPhone right after I started, so you can see the texture on the wash without the interference of the pattern.
Eye of the Moon, work in progress by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, crosshatching, eye, for sale, moon, pen and ink, watercolor
Curiosity
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
Curiosity by Amy Crook
My scanner can really take the sparkle out of anything, I think. This piece in real life is pure play — bright, cheery cyan with clusters of sparkling salt crystals, and even a single shining confetti star in the center of the “o” in curiosity.
I was experimenting once again with the various materials, salt and water, ink and paint, and by drawing my spirals in the still-wet paint I created these fascinating shapes. Then I put salt in the spirals and dripped more water over them, and it spread and pooled and dried in a glittering pattern. When it had dried, I thought the piece needed something, so I added the criss-cross stitching down the righthand side, and the word “curiosity” that seemed to fit so well with how the piece came to life.
Curiosity, 5″x7″ watercolor, salt, pen & ink and confetti star on watercolor paper.
You can get a better idea of the way the salt crystals look with this shot I took before it got its final touches:
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: blue, for sale, pen and ink, salt, spirals, watercolor
3 Comments »
Water Lilies 1
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Water Lilies 1, watercolor by Amy Crook
This whole piece was an experiment, but I’m really happy with the results. The electric blue ink of the pen I used originally dissolved completely in the drops of water that beaded up on the paper, and the rocks of salt I put in the center of each little spiral did as well. Then the water took a full day to dry, the salt crystallizing back out onto the paper to form the three-dimensional baby blue “flowers.” I went in afterward and painted in the lily pads around each flower, letting the paint smudge and dissolve a bit of the salt, giving the whole thing an impressionist, watery feeling.
I liked it so much I’ve framed it to put on my bookshelf, and started another, similar piece with more color.
Water Lilies 1, 7″x5″ pen & ink, watercolor, and salt on watercolor paper.
Water Lilies 1, progress 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can see the water beaded up, the blue ink swirling up into the drops, and the salt crystal hiding in the middle of each. Below, the result a day later, when the water had completely evaporated, leaving salt and ink in a new configuration.
Water Lilies 1, progress 2, by Amy Crook
Water Lilies 1, progress 3, by Amy Crook
Above you can see how the paper is gently warped, and the salt crystals rise up above it in robin’s egg blue and rich, watery green. Below, a shot of the piece in its frame, all ready to be hung on the wall, put on a bookshelf, or to decorate your desk.
Water Lilies 1, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: blue, for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
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