Posts Tagged ‘for sale’
Zen Teapot
Thursday, March 1st, 2012
Zen Teapot, brush drawing by Amy Crook, $59
I love the specific shape of the round bodies of certain teapots. This one isn’t perfect by any means, but the imperfection adds to its beauty to me. Despite a part of me that is all about the perfectionism, I really do dig wabi sabi and the beauty in flawed, damaged or wonky things.
Zen Teapot, 7″x5″ brush pen on paper, $59 with free shipping.
I really like how peaceful this one looks in a frame, like it would fit pretty much anywhere and just make you feel that much more Zen about life.
Zen Teapot, framed art by Amy Crook
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Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: brush pen, for sale, zen
Golden Moon
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Golden Moon, watercolor and salt painting by Amy Crook
Two of my favorite pieces at the Endgame show have been bought, so I took this one and Violet Midnight 2 over there to replace the sold pieces on the wall. Then I realized I’m so far behind in posting that I hadn’t even shown it to you guys here on the site, oops.
I used a gorgeous golden yellow paint to make these spirals, and then added the salt while they were still wet. You can really see how the salt around the “stars” is yellower than the white aura I added to the moon later, sans paint. I like this one because it makes me think of moonrise, of looking up into the sky with the low, yellow moon hanging just off to one side of your vision, rather than taking over the whole show.
It’s bigger than my usual, too, 10″x8″ instead of the smaller size, which gives room for the smaller, saltless star-spirals that I put into the background. The piece is really simple but it’s got a lot of depth for me because it took several sessions to paint all the details, and spent at least two days just growing salt crystals. Each of these salt pieces is part art and part experiment for me, so when I’m working on them I tend to think a lot about the technical aspects and let the aesthetics work themselves out almost meditatively in the spacing, size and color choices.
Golden Moon, 10″x8″ salt and watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Golden Moon, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can really see how much whiter the salt is without the paint adulterating it. I love the way this shot came out enough I even made you guys a wallpaper of it. And by you I mean me, of course. Below, I’ve zoomed in on just one pair of stars, so you can see how sparkly and three-dimensional they really are. I actually find it pretty funny that I’ve started making a lot of art that shimmers, glitters and sparkles, since in my real life I’m the least-sparkly person you’ll meet with my unchanging jewelry and boring black t-shirts.
Golden Moon, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And finally, you can see it in a frame! The shot’s a little dark, but that’s because black paper behind glass is basically a mirror, also known as a huge pain in my butt to photograph.
Golden Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, for sale, moon, salt, spirals, stars, watercolor, yellow
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Potterly Love
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Potterly Love, cartoon by Amy Crook
Is it James Potter and little Harry, or grown-up Harry and little James Sirius? In my mind it’s a little of both, James and Harry sharing a moment of fatherly love from one generation to the next. I even gave them Gryffindor-themed colors, with warm baby yellow and bright fatherly red.
I have to admit, my favorite part about drawing Harry Potter is the hair, which is always a fun, scribbly mess. Baby hair is just a little different, wispier and more staticky while being just as much of a mess as dad’s infamous mop.
Potterly Love, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper.
Potterly Love, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: baby, copic marker, etsy, father, for sale, Harry Potter, pen and ink, son
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Tentacle Deeps 26
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 26 by Amy Crook
I went for a warm, soft brown on this installment of the tentacles, with layers of tentacles fading into the murky waters. the tentacles are painted with my favorite granulating lunar black to give that lovely texture, and the background itself has some bloodstone in it to add to the texture. I find these very meditative to do, just thinking about how to arrange the curls and swirls in an attractive pattern without too much repeat or too little visual interest.
The visual texture on this one is very rich and soft, though the paper is quite stiff. Beware the velvety tentacles, their embrace is insidious.
Tentacle Deeps 26, 5.25″x7″ watercolor on paper.
I haven’t actually framed this one yet, it’ll have to go in an 8″x10″ frame with a mat because of the slightly too-wide paper that a certain artist was slackery about tearing to size. You can still enjoy the traditional close-up shot below, though.
Tentacle Deeps 26, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: brown, for sale, rust, sharpie marker, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Mood Ring
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Mood Ring, abstract watercolor painting by Amy Crook, $323
More experiments with the awesome black paper this week. This paper is actually colored by a chemical reaction in the paper pulp when they manufacture it, so the velvety black color is completely lightfast. Possibly more so than the paint and inks I use, actually.
The deep purple paint nearly disappears into the paper, but the opaque red pulls it into visibility, and both colors dye the salt here and there. I think I did tint this salt with ink as well, but I’m having a hard time remembering. The end result had a very ’70s feel to it to me, hence the title. Yeah, I said hence.
Mood Ring, 5″x5″ watercolor and salt on paper, $323 framed, with free shipping.
Something about the middle ring in the group of 3 catches the light much more than the other rings, which you can see in the detail below.
Mood Ring, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Below you can see the purple and red paint bleeding into the salt in the circles down in the lower right. I also made an iPhone wallpaper of the three central circles, and am sneaking it in here for those who read all the words.
Mood Ring, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And this one actually does fit into a frame, so you can see it next to my iPhone (for scale only, sorry) below.
Mood Ring, framed art by Amy Crook, $323
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: black, for sale, purple, red, salt, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 25
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 25, watercolor painting by Amy Crook
Tentacle Tuesday is upon us once again! I decided to go old school with this next set and paint the wash in the middle of the paper, which gives a very interesting edge to work with. This wash started golden yellow at the bottom and faded up to lemony yellow, but I wanted to give it a bit more oomph, so I went in with a deep goldenrod fine-point Sharpie marker and drew tiny crosshatching in all the background areas. The marker nearly fades into the watercolor down near the base of the tentacles, but you can see the texture clearly in the upper areas.
There’s something soothing about doing these really tedious patterns sometimes, especially since I can do a tiny area for just a minute or two and then do something else (mmmminternets), and then go back to it, which cuts up the process into manageable bites. Otherwise, my wrists might never forgive me!
Tentacle Deeps 25, 5.25″x5″ watercolor and Sharpie marker on paper.
Since this one’s slightly larger than a standard frame I didn’t get a photo of it in its new home yet, but you can see the texture of paper, paint and marker in the cool depth-of-field photo that I can’t resist taking every single time.
Tentacle Deeps 25, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: for sale, hufflepuff, sharpie marker, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor, yellow
Sunset Bees
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Sunset Bees by Amy Crook
Somehow, when I don’t know what to paint, bees keep coming to mind! I suppose they do figure in two things I love quite a bit, Winnie-the-Pooh and Sherlock Holmes. Who can forget “In Which We are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees, and the Stories Begin”? And Holmes’ desire to retire to Sussex and keep bees is equally famous, though in the modern day I keep wanting to see him take up urban beekeeping instead and have box-hives on the roof.
This painting was a bit of an experiment with using watercolor ground to prime over the gesso on the canvas, and then using watercolors for the painting. The color tended to sink into the grooves and dry pale, which gives the sky a dreamy feeling of a sunset seen obliquely through the branches, and the bees flitting overhead.
Sunset Bees, 2.75″x2.75″ oil paint on canvas with 5″ wooden easel.
Below you can see the painting tucked into a bookshelf with my Pooh and Piglet bank, though in this case it looks a bit like Pooh is protecting Piglet from a horror of bees. Hah.
Sunset Bees with easel, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: bees, for sale, tiny painting, watercolor
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