Posts Tagged ‘decorative’
ATC: Flourish
Monday, January 16th, 2012
Flourish, artist trading card by Amy Crook
I still have a bunch in my pack of Artist Trading Cards, so I decided to pull one out and just doodle a bit. Once I’d drawn in the little vine pattern in the corner, the word “flourish” sprung to mind so I went ahead and wrote it in messy calligraphy. Then I got out a brush and, using water and the ink already on the card, I smoothed out the shapes, and even ‘painted’ some new ones.
The whole thing has a feel of decorative whimsy, which goes quite well with the idea of adding flourishes, and also of flourishing in a more personal sense, at least for me. A life without whimsy or decoration would be awfully boring, after all.
Flourish, 3.5″x2.5″ ink on paper, nfs (but available for trading).
We actually had some sunshine this morning, so I took a photo and got a slightly better view of the very pale details in the middle of the card.
Flourish, detail, by Amy Crook
If you’re an artist who makes ATCs of your own, and are coveting this one, let me know!
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: aceo, atc, brush and ink, calligraphy, decorative, pen and ink
New Leaf
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
New Leaf by Amy Crook
A lot of the time I resist the urge to make things pretty and decorative, so with this piece I let myself make smooth, lovely progressions of shapes and colors all I wanted. I was experimenting with salt on a new paper, which turned out to be a bit too absorbent to make formations, but still left sparkly pools of color. Then I got my awesome new Japanese gouache-like paints out (watercolors, but opaque!) and just noodled about with two shades of green and a series of shapes and patterns.
Although the scanner tends to shift it to yellow, the lighter parts of this painting are a vivid new-leaf green, and the whole thing has a lovely rough, hand-torn edge. I’m thinking of framing it with photo corners on black mat board to bring out the roughness around the edges of the otherwise smooth, decorative shapes.
New Leaf, 8″x8″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).
Even my camera didn’t really like the lighter green color, but here you can see just a touch of the salt sparkle nestling amongst the matte paint and finely textured paper.
New Leaf, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: decorative, gouache, green, nfs, pen and ink, salt, sold
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