Posts Tagged ‘edward gorey’

M is for Mycroft

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

M is for Mycroft drawing by Amy Crook

M is for Mycroft by Amy Crook

The wonderful person who bought my other two Baker Street Tinies Edward Gorey/Sherlock pastiche pieces decided her collection wasn’t complete without Mycroft Holmes and DI Lestrade in the mix. This is the first of two more images she’s commissioned to match the first two, with yet more painstaking crosshatching. Mycroft takes directly after E is for Ernest in the original books, though the bell has become a Blackberry, and his faithful umbrella snuck its way into the picture.

I highly recommend clicking to see the image larger, if only so you can appreciate my absurdly painstaking work. Once Lestrade is done, I’ll have cards and prints available in my Etsy shop.

M is for Mycroft, 8.5″x5.5″ pen and ink on paper, sold.

Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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Squid a la Gorey

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Squid a la Gorey by Amy Crook

Squid a la Gorey by Amy Crook

The watery environs of this squid were directly inspired by the cover of The Raging Tide: Or, the Black Doll’s Imbroglio by Edward Gorey. I didn’t even realize it was out of print until just now, though, oops.

I’ve been wanting to move away from doing just Sherlock cartoons in this style, and so I went to one of my other dorky fannish loves, cephalopods. This little squid looks like something unfortunate is about to befall him, which seems appropriate for something done in Edward Gorey’s style. Perhaps the black doll will come falling through the water, or maybe the squid will be called upon to help fill out another set of childhood obituaries. “G is for Gretchen, pulled down by a squid,” perhaps?

Squid a la Gorey, 7″x5″ pen and ink on 8.5″x5.5″ drawing paper.

You can also get this piece printed on a handmade card on Etsy.

Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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J is for John

Monday, March 7th, 2011

J is for John by Amy Crook

J is for John by Amy Crook

My second Sherlock Holmes/Edward Gorey pastiche, this one is based off of “J is for James who took lye by mistake” from The Gashlycrumb Tinies and BBC’s new Sherlock tv series.

Click the image if you’d like to really see the ridiculously obsessive line work — the wallpaper was particularly labor-intensive, and I have no one but myself to blame. I’ve been in a mood lately to do work like this, that involves a lot of tiny pen-and-ink details, and unlike similar attempts when I was younger, I find it rather meditative now. I often put on audio recordings and just sit and let the two things filter into my brain, though there are frequent breaks to IM friends and goof off online, not to mention stretching my back and resting my poor hand.

Now that I’ve got the techniques down, I have to figure out what I can do with them that isn’t a parody, pastiche or plain old copy, though.

J is for John who took lye by mistake, 8.5″x5″ pen and ink on sketchbook paper, sold.

You can still get the pair of them as handmade blank greeting cards on Etsy, though!

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
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S is for Sherlock

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

S is for Sherlock by Amy Crook

S is for Sherlock by Amy Crook

Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies is my absolute favourite of works — I get to die first, after all — and so when I was experimenting with my Micron pens the urge to parody BBC’s new Sherlock by mashing up the two was irresistible.

Click the image if you’d like to really see the ridiculously obsessive line work, or just enjoy the smaller version where it all blends into a texture.

I decided to combine the pose from “S is for Susan who perished of fits” and the caption and setting from “N is for Neville who died of ennui” in order to capture the essence of modern Sherlock in his state of utter boredom. The window isn’t precisely true to the show (there’s an ornate railing of some kind outside, and curtains), but I really liked the boring brickwork from the N page, so I copied that faithfully and tediously.

I never really thought I’d learn to like shading in such a time-consuming style, but I’m already thinking about other ways I can make use of it. I’ve already got plans to do a companion piece to this for poor John, since Gorey set me up so very well with “J is for James who took lye by mistake.”

S is for Sherlock who died of ennui, 8.5″x6.5″ pen and ink on sketchbook paper, sold.

You can still get the pair of them as handmade blank greeting cards on Etsy, though!

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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