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Icon

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Icon by Amy Crook

Icon, 1″x1″ etching on a 10″x4″ piece of watercolor paper

This is another tiny etching plate, which I inked using a method where the figure, who was etched deep enough to leave an impression in the paper, was inked in yellow, then the plate was wiped mostly clean and the rest of the surface was re-inked in red.

In classical art, yellow is the color of suffering, and of course in modern times we’re all about red for pain and blood. The diluted ink actually bled down the paper a little when it was run through the press, adding to the symbolism.

I actually did a whole series of crucifixion pieces during that time period, though this is definitely the smallest of the lot — the plate itself is only one inch square.

Icon, detail, by Amy Crook

Icon, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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Dichotomies

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Dichotomies by Amy Crook

Dichotomies, 4″x6″ etchings on watercolor paper

This print uses two small etching plates together in composition. The large plate was a piece of the same found plate from yesterday’s art, and the small plate is one of my series of smaller plates for use in larger pieces, which you can see was inked in two different colors and printed over the darker plate. I’m more pleased with the final result on this one, I think, but I like the contrast between the two pieces.

You can see how the natural deckle edge from a larger sheet of watercolor paper forms the bottom, where the hand-torn edges give character to the other three sides. I was always a bit careless about the process of breaking down the bigger sheets, so this, like many of my prints, isn’t really a perfect rectangle.

Because of the way the composition was created out of several different hand-inked and hand-placed plates, it’s one of a kind.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Untitled Print 1

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Untitled Print 1 by Amy Crook

Untitled Print 1, 4″x6″ etchings on watercolor paper

This print uses three small etching plates together in composition. The large plate was a bit of found art — a larger piece left behind by some other artists and cut up into intriguing shapes with no real connection to the original composition. The two smaller plates were part of a series of little, reusable etching plates I made by hand.

I have another print like this that I’ll post tomorrow, which uses a different portion of the found plate and another of the small plates in a similar manner.

Because of the way the composition was created out of several different hand-inked and hand-placed plates, it’s one of a kind.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Reflect

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Reflect, detail, by Amy Crook

Reflect, 3″x3″ monoprint on 9″x9″ watercolor paper

This monoprint has always made me think of giant, ancient trees growing right at the edge of a pond, reflected such that it’s hard to tell where the trees end and the water begins. You might see something totally different, of course, since this is a very abstract image. I did a couple of prints with this color scheme, I’ll try to post the other one tomorrow or next week. Actually, I used to dye my hair both of those colors at one point, though these days I don’t like to bleach it out in order to go blue or green, so mostly I stick to red or purple.

A monoprint is created by using thick, fingerpaint-like water-based inks to paint onto a blank acrylic printing plate, and then running the result through a press with wet paper just like an etching. It creates a single one-of-a-kind print that’s a merger of painting and randomness, the image flipped and often changed by the pressure and the way the ink interacts with the water-soaked paper. I would often print half a dozen in the course of a session and only keep the ones I really liked.

Reflect by Amy Crook

Reflect by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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Being Your Slave

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Being Your Slave, art by Amy Crook, poem by Shakespeare

Being Your Slave, 9″x12″ oil on canvas board, poem by William Shakespeare

A recent late-night discussion on Twitter about the movie The Pillow Book with Ewan McGregor reminded me of this piece, so I thought I’d post it for today’s art. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 57 adorns the chest of our nameless man, the swirls and strokes of hand-painted calligraphy decorating the planes and valleys of his torso.

I first painted the figure itself, and then once it was dry the painstaking brush calligraphy was applied by hand on top. I suspect the process, while far easier on the flat surface, is a lot less fun when the person in question is merely a painting.

This piece is painted on canvas board, which is primed canvas wrapped around a cardboard base rather than stretched on wooden bars. Because of the nature of the piece, it wants to lean insouciantly against a stack of books or be tucked into a nook in a bookshelf rather than framed and hung — any frame or matte it was put in would obscure part of the calligraphy.

I’m not sure if Shakespeare would approve of the use to which I’ve put his words, but given his penchant for low humour and bawdy lines, I like to think he’d be amused.

Categories: Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Whorls and Turns

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook, $499

For once, I thought I’d post something brightly colored for Friday. This is a great example of the way monoprint inks feel a lot like high-quality finger paints, and the playfulness that it gave to the process. Also an example of me not wearing gloves in the printing studio like I should have, but I won’t tell if you don’t.

When I really got into monoprinting, one of the things I did was make a number of small etching plates that I could use interchangeably along with the monoprints and special papers to create one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Here you can see three of those small plates, which were printed onto the page in a single run.

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

These small plates were about 1-1.5″ each, and could be inked a number of different ways to get different effects. You can see these three were all initially inked with a deep blue, and then the bottom one was wiped almost clean of blue and inked again with the red to give it the effect of blue veins in red rock. Once those plates had been run, the rest was done on a blank monoprinting plate, which would be printed right over the images that were already there. It’s interesting bit of approximation, since the image prints backwards onto the page.

This one-of-a-kind print is on thick watercolor paper suitable for framing, but not ready to hang by itself. I’m happy to matte or frame pieces before shipping for the cost of the materials.

Whorls and Turns, 12.5″x11″ etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $499 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Anima

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Anima, detail, by Amy Crook

Anima, 3″x3″ photo etching on 5″x5″ watercolor paper

This is another print, this time a photo etching that uses a photograph I took of the model I painted in tiger stripes. As far as I know he never did get the tattoo, but I really enjoyed having the stripey version of him to use for my art.

I printed these in an edition of 5, and I have 3 left, though one of them’s got some decorative fingerprints in the whitespace. I mixed up a rich velvety purple ink and printed onto a very soft, thick watercolor paper, and the result is an image that has a certain glow about it as the details fuzz into each other just a little. The shadows are thick but his hair still glows in a cascade of curls where the light hits it.

Anima by Amy Crook, 1/5

Anima by Amy Crook, 1/5

These prints are on thick, soft paper that will require a matte or frame to display.

Categories: Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces
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