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Tentacle Deeps 9

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 9 watercolor by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 9 by Amy Crook

Once again, I bring you tentacles for Tuesday!

This watercolor piece uses double the salt for its effects. First I added rich texture and some orangey-gold color to the background with the large, coarse salt crystals. Later I used smaller Kosher salt on the tentacles themselves, putting the salt on after painting each one to get the maximum effect.

Something about this background made me want paler tentacles, so there’s less layers as a result. The salt texture is more dramatically visible, making the tentacles look as though they’ve got barnacles attached from years under the deep oceans.

Tentacle Deeps 9, 4″x6″ watercolor and salt.

I’ve also made an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper out of this one, as well, enjoy!

Tentacle Deeps 9, framed art by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 9, framed, by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
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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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Tentacle Deeps 8

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 8 by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 8 by Amy Crook

It’s Tuesday, and that means tentacles! Well, at least here it does.

I used four different colors of pen to ink in these tentacles, giving a depth of field that’s harder to do with the crosshatching texture alone. The fourth, palest green only shows up in the signature and as a tiny tip of tentacle peeking out along the left side. I put them down in reverse order, first the black tentacles, then the dark green, and then the lighter, more blurry green, and finally the tiny bit of bright, pale chartreuse.

I’ve been experimenting with other textural shading in other pieces, but for some reason I just really prefer this simple crosshatching when making tentacles. I’ve got at least two more backgrounds waiting to be be-tentacled, however, so perhaps I’ll try something else next time.

Tentacle Deeps 8, 5″x5″ pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.

I was feeling self-indulgent, so I made a computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper of this one. I’ve got it up on my monitor right now!

Tentacle Deeps 8, framed art by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 8, framed, by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
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Meteoric

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Meteoric by Amy Crook

Meteoric by Amy Crook

This piece went through several incarnations and changes. My original red wash turned a peachy-orange that I wasn’t expecting when it dried with the salt, and the crater-like formations in the lower left needed something to balance them out. At first I tried adding another layer of salt craters, but that didn’t really help the imbalance, and so I ended up taking first the lighter red and then a dark burgundy pen and drawing in the lines, which tended to blur and spread whenever the pen passed over an area that had been densely soaked in salt water. Then I added one final wash of plain water in the corner, blurring and mixing the reds into a rather surprising fuchsia through which the lines can still be faintly seen.

Though the first incarnation had some accidental overtones with the pink salt spots in the center of soft peach circles, the final has a rather science fiction feel of a meteor shower streaking downward to further ravage the damaged orange surface of the planet below.

Meteoric, 5″x5″ watercolor and pen and ink on watercolor paper, $169 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
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At First Sight

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

At First Sight by Amy Crook

At First Sight by Amy Crook

I went through a period where I was fascinated with the idea of the chakras, and I did several monoprints related to them. This one uses the colors are all of the lower chakras to make flame, and the symbols for the 2nd and 6th chakras, desire and the third eye.

Our culture has a whole myth of “love at first sight” that I’ve never really bought into — I think that what you get at first sight comes from somewhere else, though it might eventually be pulled upward into the realms of the heart. At first sight all you get is a visual, some social cues from dress and superficial action, and no idea of what the person is really like inside. This piece reflects that idea, that we expect to see into them with our third eye, when really we’re seeing with our sacral instincts, desire and wanting rather than the love that comes from accepting a person’s flaws as well as their really nice body.

At First Sight, 2″x6″ monoprint on 6.5″x9″ watercolor paper, $299 with free shipping.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books
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Burning Planet

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Burning Planet by Amy Crook

Burning Planet by Amy Crook, $169

A circle is such a simple form, and yet I feel like I could find an infinite variation in them. This one, too, looks the surface of a planet to me, or maybe some alien sun, the swirls of almost neon yellow marked by orange and red patterns.

This time I used my Windsor & Newton watercolors rather than the Japanese pigment inks, and it’s really interesting how the different media react differently to the addition of the salt. Rather than drying to a fine powder, each little spot of orange-red on the yellow paint is actually a salt crystal formed with the pigment-rich water as the salt on top dissolved, and then dried. If you look closely you can see the flat, squarish shapes of the salt crystals (click the image to enlarge). It even sparkles in the sunlight.

Burning Planet, 5″x5″ salt and watercolor on watercolor paper.

Here’s a terrible iPhone photo of the painting at an angle, so you can see the sun sparkling off the crystals:

Burning Planet, detail, by Amy Crook

Burning Planet, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
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Weeble Wednesday: Bride of the Mummy

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Bride of the Mummy by Amy Crook

Bride of the Mummy by Amy Crook

This poor lady was stuck as inks for many weeks, waiting for me to get a refill on my colorless blender so I could properly fade the wear and tear on her bandages. I had fun making her as a counterpart to the Mummy, especially since I gave them opposite eyes freed of bandages.

She’s one of the bonus brides from my Monster Heart Coloring Book, of course, and I have just one illustration left to color before those are all done.

Bride of the Mummy, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper. $89 with free shipping.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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