Posts Tagged ‘brush and ink’
Three Crows 3
Thursday, March 5th, 2026
Three Crows 3, 5″x7″ watercolor and brush & ink by Amy Crook
After a long hiatus, I’m working on getting back into a regular art practice along with my writing. This first finished piece is technically part of a series, mostly because I wasn’t feeling original about the title.
I had this background painted already from months ago, but I hadn’t had the motivation to finish it until I did a short mentorship with the wonderful Sarah Lacy, who gave me “finish one work in progress” as homework. The very darkest blue at the top has a subtle sparkle, fading down to a more demure vivianite and then just that first blush of pink and gold as the sun comes up to outshine the moon.
The twisted tree is one of my favorite types to paint, brush and a dark matte india ink really making it stand out from the background along with the titular birds. There’s more focus on the tree than the birds in this painting in the series, but I think that’s okay.
I have another abstract coming soon, as well as a pair of more spectacular sunrises, so keep an eye out! This one’s for sale if you’re inclined, but the point was more to get back into an art practice than to make a sale, if you know what I mean. Contact me if you’re interested, though!
Categories: Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: brush and ink, crow, for sale, three crows, watercolor
100 Cats no.1-10
Tuesday, February 11th, 2025
A long, long time ago – okay, in the first quarter of 2023 – I did a big art project where I painted or drew 1 cat (almost) every day, until I had 100 cat paintings. It took me a long time to properly scan, process, and ready all those images for you, but believe it or not, they’re only just now ready to share here.
I shared the whole thing on Patreon as it was happening, but they’re used to my badly edited phone photos by now! I wanted these nicer for posterity, which ended up making them so, so late.
At some point I’d like to revisit this project with 100 birds, but for now, enjoy your first 10 cats!
“Nope.” 7x”5″ ink and watercolor on paper
“Three Fates,” 5″x7″ watercolor on paper
“Bleh,” 7″x5″ watercolor on paper (sold)
“Mlem,” 3.5″x2.5″ ink and watercolor on paper (sold)
“Play,” 3.5″x2.5″ watercolor on yupo
“Space,” 3.5″x2.5″ watercolor on paper (sold)
“Decay,” 5″x7″ watercolor on paper
“Beans,” 3.5″x2.5″ pen and ink on paper
“Hmph,” 5″x7″ watercolor on paper (sold)
“zzZZ,” 7″x5″ watercolor on paper (sold)
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: 100 cats, brush and ink, for sale, sold, watercolor
February 2024 Sketch Cards
Thursday, April 11th, 2024
New month, new sketch cards! I’m mostly busy writing the 4th Consulting Magic book this month, but the blog won’t go totally neglected again. There’s at least these, after all.
I want to say I’m feeling messier than usual but let’s be real, these are pretty average. But hey, they’re on time!
- Amber asked for Sportsball and I did this motley thing (sold)
- Kelly wanted a dragon and got a tiny one with a tiny hoard (sold)
- Jeff asked for ghost stories and got gossiping ghosts (sold)
- Eric asked for and got beets (sold)
- Amy B wanted cheese and got a bonus cheese-hoarding dragon (sold)
- SaraBeth wanted something silly and Trotsky volunteered to be blobbed (sold)
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: amber, amy b, brush and ink, cat, copic marker, dragon, eric, ghost, jefferson, kelly, patreon, pen and ink, sarabeth
October 2023 Patreon Sketches
Thursday, March 14th, 2024
A bunch of goodies this time! Patron stuff, non-patron stuff, and spaaaaaaace!
I got in a weird mood and did a whole bunch of things that were not for patrons before getting to those, so bear with me. From the top left:
- Jefferson asked for “patience, dammit” and gets this grumpy yet patient crow (sold)
- This is a bird no one asked for
- Amy B asked for “hibernate” and gets a random dark fluffball hiding in a blanket burrito, with blep (sold)
- Skulls 1, 2, and 3 are vaguely portraits of my holiday centerpiece, which consisted of Edgar, Ezra Bean, and Dalton, respectively. Yes, I do name my skulls. Don’t you?
- This blue galaxy is by special request (sold)
- Eric asked for the Great Pumpkin and I went horror with it sorry (sold)
- Rey & Amber requested “seasons change” and get some word art (sold)
- The lunar eclipse is for SaraBeth (sold)
- Nick wanted Pumpkin SPICY and gets a pumpkin chili pepper jack-o-lantern pun (sold)
- Kelly asked for dragons and gets these two little dudes (sold)
- In the second image we have a whole rainbow of galaxies! (all sold)
Thanks again for being awesome!
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: amy b, brush and ink, dragon, jefferson, kelly, moon, nick, pen and ink, rey, sarabeth, space, watercolor
2021 48-hour Sketch Card Weekend
Thursday, February 24th, 2022
48 hours, 24 sketch cards
It’s all Danielle Corsetto’s fault.
The bright young perky things of comics do an annual 24hr comic, but Danielle is also moving into the Old and Tired phase of life and wanted a little more space, and also to expand the challenge to non-comics people. So, her version was to take the weekend, 48 hours, and do 24 of something — I chose sketch cards! And I actually did it, which was pretty awesome.
A lot of these are catch-up for the previous months on Patreon, from which I owed oh so many cards, but also just doing some for the heck of it.
You can see all the original posts here on Patreon, they’re public and have tired commentary to go with them: https://www.patreon.com/amysnotdeadyet/posts?filters%5Btag%5D=48hcw
ACEO sketch cards by Amy Crook
First batch, all marker all the time. From top left:
- Corinne wanted a tiktok memed into Stuckony, lol
- Amber asked for “backyard kiddie pool” and oops got a kitty pool
- Rey asked for “Science Says Chill” and got his fancy word art
- And some lineless, sketchless halloween candy for feeding my own heart!
ACEO sketch cards by Amy Crook
Second batch, playing with Copic markers and ink on Yupo substrate. From the top left:
- abstract play with liquid ink directly onto paper, no pen required
- spooky ghost
- skull with a crown
- goldfishy!
ACEO sketch cards by Amy Crook
Markers, pencils, and your artist getting tired. From top left:
- Amy B asked for “summer witch vibes” and got this homage to Goths in Hot Weather (sold)
- Jeff asked for Print Nightmare, which is apparently a real Windows exploit, because of course it is (sold)
- Jeff ALSO asked for Roy Kent, which was honestly a fucking delight (sold)
- Deandra asked for something from To Hive & To Hold, and I did a scribbly pencil sketch of Meadowsweet snoozing on Arthur
ACEO sketch cards by Amy Crook
Day 2, switching media. Watercolor! From the top left:
- Bucky with tats, gift art for a Halloween thing (which is why this post is locked)
- a mixed media abstract that i started yesterday and finished today
- magic wands for Eric (sold)
- fishy!
ACEO sketch cards by Amy Crook
A trio of trees and a very special birb against the moon. Who’s that Pokémon?
ACEO sketch cards by Amy Crook
Last ones! From the top left:
- blobcat for the end, because two others are drying overnight for finishing later
- purple abstract, because I can
- Eric asked for “salt” and got this almost-dry abstract in his favorite blue & gold
- Fairytale Sky! Remember that series? Have another.
I took pics when I started each say… as you can see watercolor day is a lot more involved.
Batching them in fours and taking a lot of breaks really helped, and man could I tell I’d been doing my physical therapy. My neck was almost not mad about it at the end, and is basically healed other than the ongoing problems from my terrible art gremlin posture. I have managed to somehow loosen my right shoulder in its socket, however, so I’m back in PT starting this week. Yay? I also took a bunch of breaks on watercolor day to help Dan dye his hair blue, and we ran out of gloves so I had one very blue hand by the end, haha.
Thanks for coming along on the journey belatedly with me!
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: aceo, amy b, black paper, brush and ink, bucky barnes, captain america, cat, copic marker, corinne, eric, fairytale sky, ghost, halloween, jefferson, mcu, patreon, pen and ink, rey, roy kent, skull, ted lasso, tree, watercolor, word art
Fascism is Bad
Tuesday, September 8th, 2020
Fascism is Bad, 6″x6″ ink and watercolor on paper
Some people have the energy to protest, some of us have to stick with protest art. If you told me at any point prior to 2016 that I’d be worried about literal nazis in 2020, I would have thought you were crazy. Just goes to show.
This piece uses several different brush pens and some bloodily patriotic watercolor to make its point.
Nazis ruin everything.
Fascism is Bad, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the spattered red and layered ink on the D in BAD. Below, the art’s in a frame that’s not quite right for it — it would be perfect in a larger frame, or one of the acrylic frameless displays.
Fascism is Bad, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Pretty Words, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: brush and ink, brush pen, for sale, watercolor, word art
Dreamlands 3
Monday, September 7th, 2020
Dreamlands 3, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper
Another piece that’s been in my Work in Progress pile for an embarrassingly long time, I took this city away from reality immediately and never brought it back.
From Mondrian to fungus, the buildings and their washed-out colors spring from a number of sources, including the usual Gherkin-inspired glass edifice.
I couldn’t tell you who or what lives here, perhaps somewhere close to Ulthar or well beyond the cursed plains of Leng. But you could probably tell your own stories about it, if you tried.
Dreamlands 3, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the play of dim color on the buildings and in the sky. Below, it’s been framed, like a peek through a looking glass into another world.
Dreamlands, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: brush and ink, city, dreamlands, for sale, horizon, watercolor
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