Posts Tagged ‘for sale’
Zoisite Swirls
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Zoisite Swirls by Amy Crook, $77
This piece is an echo of Hibiscus Green, but using the color palette from yesterday’s art. The mixture of the gold tones and zoisite texture gives it an illusion of being an iridescent bronze, even though the paint is actually quite matte. The zoisite is especially matte, soft and velvety looking on the paper’s surface.
Zoisite Swirls, 6.375″x4.25″ hibiscus tea on paper, $77 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: celadon, crane and co, for sale, spiral, watercolor, zoisite
Tentacle Deeps 15
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 15 by Amy Crook
Days of work went into today’s piece, but I think they’re my favorite tentacles yet. I used the same technique of softening pen-and-ink with water as in Tentacle Deeps 14, but then I went through and grew salt crystals along the body of each tentacle. The cross-hatching used three different pens to create the sense of light and depth, and my friend Eric L suggested that it looks like the tentacles are starting to dissolve where the light is hitting them.
Tentacle Deeps 15, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper.
Here you can see a closer view of the texture and the way I created the effect of light fading to darkness.
Tentacle Deeps 15, detail 1, by Amy Crook
I love how this shows off the variation in the tentacle colors, and the way the salt crystals sparkle even with the dark ink suffusing them.
Tentacle Deeps 15, detail 2, by Amy Crook
I finally had the brilliant idea of putting something in the framed shots so you’d get a sense of scale, so enjoy this shot of the tentacles in their frame, hanging out with my iPhone.
Tentacle Deeps 15, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: brush and ink, crosshatching, for sale, orange, pen and ink, red, salt, tentacle deeps
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Violet Midnight 2
Monday, September 19th, 2011
Violet Midnight 2 by Amy Crook
I’ve been thinking about making prints lately, and that’s led me to think about the way that the salt paintings are really unprintable — while a print of a normal piece is maybe half as cool as the real piece, but printing the salt pieces loses 90% of their awesomeness. So, with that in mind, I mixed up a slightly different mix of the violet-black from Violet Midnight and made a piece that only used the salt for visual texture rather than physical structure. There’s no shiny paint, no sparkly salt, just simple ink and watercolor.
I actually started it the same way I do any salt piece, with spirals in ink on paper, but this time I went straight to painting the background (which has little salt-made stars, done the traditional way by scattering salt onto the damp paint), then used plain water to pick up the ink and create halos of golden orange around the sun and larger stars.
Violet Midnight 2, 7″x5″ watercolor, pen and ink on paper.
Here’s how it looks in a frame, with my iPhone for scale:
Violet Midnight 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, moon, orange, pen and ink, salt, spirals, violet, watercolor
1 Comment »
Modern Snow
Friday, September 16th, 2011
Modern Snow by Amy Crook, $555
It’s always fascinating to me how the different colors of ink react to the salt — some of them don’t actually spread into the halo of crystal formations, but this one took its rich blue color all the way to the tips, leaving the darker, more violet-toned ink behind in the central circle. This piece combines the blue snowflake-like salt formations from Snowflakes with the fascinating brushwork from Aglow 2 to get an entirely new effect that reminds me of a pattern from the ’50s or ’60s.
Modern Snow, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $555, framed, with free shipping.
Like all the paintings I made using the lunar black, this one’s got the gorgeous contrast between the velvety dark areas and the sparkling salt crystals.
Modern Snow, detail, by Amy Crook
A simple frame will keep your art safe from damage, even those strange sideways crystals that grow at odd angles out of the paper.
Modern Snow, framed, by Amy Crook, $555
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, for sale, pen and ink, salt, snow, snowflake, watercolor
Aglow 2
Thursday, September 15th, 2011
Aglow 2 by Amy Crook, $499
I just couldn’t resist revisiting the delicate colors and shapes I got using the orange ink pen with this paper and my salt techniques. I combined a constellation-like cluster of salt rosettes with the rich texture and deep, velvety color of the lunar black watercolor to create a companion piece to the original Aglow. This paper has such a soft texture of its own that the watercolor paint tends to sink in, giving the background a more muted feel and making the textures more subtle.
Aglow 2, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $499, framed, with free shipping.
The surprise this time is the delicate intersection of brush strokes in the lower right, which created an effect I liked so much you’ll see it repeated over again in tomorrow’s piece.
Aglow 2, detail 1, by Amy Crook
I also love the way this delicate little line of three salt pools looks like Orion’s belt, or perhaps just a trio of fireflies dancing in the deepening night.
Aglow 2, detail 2, by Amy Crook
A thin black frame protects the piece and offsets the subtle gradations in the paint.
Aglow 2, framed, by Amy Crook, $499
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: fireflies, for sale, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Triskaidekaphobia
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
Triskaidekaphobia by Amy Crook, $313
Unlike most of my abstract pieces, this one got its name when it was just barely begun. Thirteen green spirals adorned this odd-sized bit of sample paper, and something about the pattern just suggested its name to me. It’s even a bit ironic, since 13’s one of my lucky numbers (what? sometimes a girl’s gotta embrace the cliche).
I used the gorgeously graining Lunar Black that you’ll see in all 3 of this week’s abstract pieces to create the richly textured background, though there’s even a little bit of Bloodstone snuck in that’s nearly invisible except in strong light. The black is very matte, which sets off the subtle shine of the salt crystals beautifully.
Triskaidekaphobia, approx. 6.5″x6.5″ mixed media on paper, $313, framed, with free shipping.
Triskaidekaphobia, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Up close you can see the dense, velvety black creeping in around the clusters of sparkling salt pools.
Triskaidekaphobia, detail 2, by Amy Crook
I tucked it into an 8″x8″ frame using archival photo corners, so it’ll ship safely to you with its crystals intact.
Triskaidekaphobia, framed, by Amy Crook, $313
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: 13, for sale, green, lunar black, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 14
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 14 by Amy Crook
Just when you thought the tentacles were slumbering, my Tentacle Deeps series is back! I’ve had a few more ideas for them niggling in the back of my head, and this is the first of at least two new additions to the series. This one, despite the look, is entirely done with ink pens and water, no paint involved. I used brushes dipped in plain water to create the visual effects and the second layer of tentacles. There’s a hint of the original pen lines in each tentacle, fore- and background, and subtle colors are hiding in the black, added with scribbles of blue and purple before the water was applied.
Tentacle Deeps 14, 5″x7″ pen, brush and ink on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 14, detail, by Amy Crook
You can see some of the texture here in the above detail shot, and the soft variations of blue, green, and purple hiding in the black. Below, you can see how the simple black frame looks with the tentacles inside.
Tentacle Deeps 14, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: brush and ink, for sale, green, pen and ink, tentacle deeps
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