Posts Tagged ‘blue’
A is for Arabesque
Thursday, July 12th, 2012
A is for Arabesque, calligraphic illumination by Amy Crook
I’ve begun a new series, though this one I can guarantee has a specifically limited lifespan. I’ve decided to do an illuminated alphabet, using pen and ink for the lines, watercolor for the fills, and glitter gel pen in lieu of gold leaf.
The first in my series is, of course, A, the awesomest letter in the alphabet. A is for Amy who fell down the stairs, after all, at least according to Gorey. A is also for arabesque, in this case referring to the graceful design motif, usually of acanthus leaves, used to decorate all sorts of things from calligraphy to mosques. My blue glittery acanthus are spiraling in the background of this grand periwinkle A. I’ve decided to do each letter with some sort of design or typographical motif represented, so let’s hope I can find something for that other end of the alphabet where things get tricksy.
B and C are already chosen, anyway.
I’m planning to post these once a week, so it will take six months for the series to be done, give or take a few weeks off for bookmarks or Sharpie art.
A is for Arabesque, 5″x5″ watercolor, pen and ink and glitter gel pen on paper.
A is for Arabesque, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the sun catching the glitter and making it shine much brighter than the paper (which really is white, I swear). Below, I’ve got it tucked into a frame and hanging out with the J on the shelf with some of my many, many books.
A is for Arabesque & J is for Juxtapose, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Illuminated Alphabet, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: alphabet, blue, calligraphy, for sale, glitter gel pen, illumination, pen and ink, periwinkle, purple, watercolor
1 Comment »
Filigree Planet 2
Monday, July 2nd, 2012
Filigree Planet 2 by Amy Crook
One more example of all the tiny spirals, this one with a few purple spirals sneaking in among the blue just to switch things up. The planet itself is a rich, grapey purple with some splashes of lighter periwinkle as highlights. The black space around it has quite a mysterious, almost wormhole-like texture to it, swirling around the planet’s inexorable gravity.
Filigree Planet 2, 7″x5″ watercolor and glitter gel pen on paper.
Filigree Planet 2, detail, by Amy Crook
I love the way the light shimmers off these glittery pens, but they fade to near-invisibility at other angles and distances. I even made you, well, okay, I made myself a computer wallpaper off of the detail shot above, but you can use it, too. Below, you can see the piece tucked into a black frame, reflecting serenely in my iPhone (as usual, it’s not included, heh).
Filigree Planet 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books
Tags: blue, filigree, for sale, glitter gel pen, planet, purple, spirals, violet, watercolor
2 Comments »
Tentacle Deeps 37
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 37 by Amy Crook
Today I bring you, in a completely unsurprising move, more tentacles! My computer really hates the color of these tentacles, so if you’re hoping for accuracy the framed photo is the closest. Photoshop and I just couldn’t come to an agreement here for some reason. Madness!
Anyway, these tentacles are painted with watercolor onto canvas board, which gives them an intriguing texture both in the background and the tentacles themselves, and causes the paint to dry slightly muted from what I expect, so that the blacks are soft and matte.
Tentacle Deeps 37, 8″x10″ watercolor on canvas board.
Tentacle Deeps 37, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see how the paint sinks into the texture of the canvas. Below, the framed shot for scale and color closest to the reality. Which is to say, not very, heh.
Tentacle Deeps 37, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, canvas board, for sale, green, tentacle deeps, tentacles
Flow
Monday, May 28th, 2012
Flow, abstract art by Amy Crook
This holiday Monday brings a piece that’s ironically about work, and getting into the flow of things. I actually painted the background for this upside-down, but I decided I liked the way it looked better the other way around once I got in the flow of working on it.
It reminds me a little of those desk toys with the two unmixing fluids that rock back and forth meditatively, creating waves where the two fluids meet. Something to put up at work to remind you that sometimes, all you have to do is look at things another way to get into the groove again.
Flow, 8″x4″ pen & ink and watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Flow, detail, by Amy Crook
Above you can see some of the crosshatching up close, and the subtle variations in color and texture throughout the piece. Below, it’s been temporarily put in a 10″x8″ frame for scale. And now, by request, it’s also a computer wallpaper.
Flow, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: blue, crosshatching, for sale, green, pen and ink, spirals, watercolor
4 Comments »
Tentacle Towel 2
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
Tentacle Towel 2 by Amy Crook
I’ve finally decorated another of my cotton floursack dish towels, and shockingly, it’s more tentacles! This time sinuous green with blue like waves in the background. I’ll put the lot up on Etsy eventually, but for now the only way to get them is to donate $25 or more to HALP PLS, my “buy the artist a computer that’s not about to die” fund.
These are an interesting challenge because I don’t really want to oversaturate the cloth with the ink (wasteful!), but it’s hard to do any kind of precision work on the wubbly surface (that’s totally a technical term). I suppose I could get an iron and stuff, but since the markers recommend machine wash cold and hang dry, no ironing, it seems silly.
I’ve started a third towel but it’s of the tiny masochistic crosshatching sort and entirely tentacle-free, so who knows when you’ll see it. I do vaguely plan to do a few that have cartoons on them, but you know me, I always have ideas for tentacles.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
Tags: blue, dish towel, green, sharpie, sharpie marker
Galaxies
Thursday, May 17th, 2012
Galaxies, abstract art by Amy Crook
From some angles the background of this piece looks as black as the space between galaxies, or at least as black as the paper it’s painted on. Shift it just a little though, and a liberal dusting of silver stars sparkles up in the blackness, making the whole piece shimmer. The iridescent green paint, opaque blue and glittering salt form mysterious shapes floating in the black, broken spirals and strange pools of color.
I was just playing when I made the spirals, wanting some different shapes and enjoying the bigger page, which was more forgiving of the lack of precision from the salt water solution. It sat around for a few weeks after it dried while I decided what to do with it, and in the end I decided a subtle dusting of silver paint would best set off the shapes. I ended up brushing most of the silver particles back off the page, which makes the whole effect much more subtly supporting instead of overwhelming.
Galaxies, 10″x8″ salt and watercolor on paper.
Galaxies, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can see the golden afternoon light reflecting off the salt and paint in this particular spiral formation. Below, the strange little frost that formed where the water flowed off the edge and then soaked into the corner of the paper.
Galaxies, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And of course I’ve taken a photo with frame, desk and iPhone, to give you an idea of how big it is in real life.
Galaxies, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, blue, iridescent, nfs, salt, silver, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 35
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 35, watercolor by Amy Crook
Someone asked me at the gallery on Saturday why I like tentacles, and I didn’t have a really good answer. I like painting them a lot, in part because it’s an interesting combination of spontaneous and planned art, in that the tentacles can go all over the place but keep a certain smooth taper to them while they do, and I always try to get a certain distribution of shapes and sizes in so that the piece itself is aesthetically pleasing as well as creepy.
This particular paper isn’t really meant to be watercolor paper, and it absorbed the paint without letting it float on top at all, giving a stripey quality to the blue gradation in the background. The paper itself has a lot of little dotted inclusions that add texture to the piece, and the tentacles themselves are painted in Japanese sumi-e ink rather than watercolor to take better advantage of the paper’s absorbency.
Tentacle Deeps 35, 8″x10″ ink and watercolor on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 35, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the shine off the very base of the tentacles where the black sumi-e ink is the thickest. Below, the piece waits in its frame, taking up nearly my whole tiny writing desk as it poses with my iPhone for scale.
Tentacle Deeps 35, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, sumi-e ink, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
« Or Head Back That Way
More Art This Way »
