Posts Tagged ‘iridescent watercolor’

March 2022 Patreon Sketches

Monday, May 9th, 2022

There should be a Floating Gallery coming for you June 1, but for now please enjoy a nice big batch of sketch cards for my darling Patreon patrons! Some of them are for specific people, and then extras get sent to my Snow Leopards in with their other quarterly goodies.

March 2022 ACEO sketches by Amy Crook

There’s eight here, only two of which are spoken for! From top left:

  • Purple abstract! I dunno, I just like it.
  • Weird silly drippy experiment abstract, which I also like now that I’ve plaid-ified the gold and turquoise a bit.
  • Jeff asked for “writer’s block” and got this shiny, trippy bit of weirdness.
  • Eric asked for SPAAAAAACE! and his is also shiny, but he gets a TARDIS.
  • This cool sky I made got a city and some birbs to go with it.
  • I gave this little raven some more cowbell and untucked his face from his wing.
  • I also gave this abstract some more cowbell and now it’s reasonably unrecognizable and also has some Concentric vibes.
  • And this last one is full Concentric, with a bunch of bursts that kind of vanish and 3 that do not. Totally something that doesn’t work in a photo, sorry.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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May 2021 Patreon Sketch Cards

Wednesday, July 28th, 2021

Another day, another bunch of Patreon sketch cards! I got some nifty black mixed media ones in, and tried that out with my shiny paints for the cocktails on the bottom left. I try to have fun with my sketches whenever I can, y’know?

7 small sketch cards by Amy Crook

From the top left:

  • Amber’s April showers/May flowers
  • a summer bat for The Other Amy
  • Nott the Brave for Eric
  • Wally the Nonbinary Welsh Walrus for Booskerdu
  • Cocktails for Jefferson
  • Kim’s new job ft. books
  • and 40s music for Roxanne B, with my personal favorite song from the era, “Swingin’ on a Star.”

Carry some moonbeams off in a jar, darlings!

Categories: Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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Christmas Unwrapped

Monday, December 8th, 2014

Christmas Unwrapped by Amy Crook

Christmas Unwrapped by Amy Crook

This piece feels like a Christmas tree, with green branches and splashes of red for garland, metallic splotches in gold, silver, and green for balls or lights. Nothing concrete, just a slice of an abstraction of a tree, but it gets that holiday cheer right out in the open nonetheless.

The paper is a thickly textured cream, almost a pale yellow, and the paint for the branches is actually called “Christmas Tree Green” and scented with pine, though the scent fades when the paint dries. There’s a border of sorts, but the image refuses to let boundaries contain its holiday joy.

Christmas Unwrapped, 10″x8″ duochrome, interference, and pine-scented watercolor on watercolor paper.

Christmas Unwrapped, detail, by Amy Crook

Christmas Unwrapped, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the brightness of the green and gold ‘ornaments’ glowing against the warm cream of the paper. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, bringing some Christmas Cheer to my apartment.

Christmas Unwrapped, framed art by Amy Crook

Christmas Unwrapped, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Card Design, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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Atmosphere

Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

Atmosphere by Amy Crook

Atmosphere by Amy Crook

This makes me think of a strange, swirling planet flinging its atmosphere off into the void, or perhaps stealing the blue-violet outer ring of gases from somewhere else. The thin middle ring of blue is hard to spot in the scan, but you can see it in the detail photo quite well, and it’s very obvious in person. The color reminded me very distinctly of photos of the earth’s atmosphere, that thin layer that keeps us all alive, which is where the piece gets its title. The spiralling planet itself is a color-changing paint that goes from reddish copper to a warm golden bronze, while the outside runs through blues and purples depending on the angle of the light.

Atmosphere, 5″x5″ duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.

Atmosphere, detail, by Amy Crook

Atmosphere, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the thin blue shining out from between lavender and copper. Below, it’s in a frame, hanging out with my old glasses for scale.

Atmosphere, framed art by Amy Crook

Atmosphere, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
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Jellyfish Bloom

Monday, October 6th, 2014

Jellyfish Bloom by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Bloom by Amy Crook

I went to Monterey Bay Aquarium recently, where they have two different exhibits full of jellyfish. I love the way the jellies just float serenely along, totally oblivious to the tug of gravity, going up or down or whichever way suits them at the moment. Their tentacles trail along behind like the tails of comets, following with the same slow, careless air.

The splash of sunlight at the top of this painting made me want to give them a bit of a gold sheen, so I used the palest gold paint I have (doesn’t everyone have 7 shades of gold paint?). There’s a tiny bit of salt hiding in this painting, and the background is shining and iridescent, giving everything an ethereal, underwater glow.

Jellyfish Bloom, 7″x5″ salt, metallic watercolor, and iridescent watercolor on paper.

Jellyfish Bloom, detail, by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Bloom, detail, by Amy Crook

It’s annoyingly difficult to photograph shiny things, because the white of the paper ends up looking grey by comparison, but you can get a little hint of the iridescent sheen that hides in the turquoise waters with the shiny gold jellies in the photo above. Below, the piece in a frame, looking rather more green from the bright sunlight.

Jellyfish Boom, framed art by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Boom, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
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Midnight

Saturday, September 6th, 2014

Midnight, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook

Midnight by Amy Crook

This piece is a sequel of sorts to Winter, but it’s black instead of white, iridescent and shiny instead of softly matte, complexly layered instead of simple. This painting holds the layered mystery of the midnight hour, velvety darkness cradling the shining blues, reminding us that there’s always another layer, another path, another point of view.

Midnight, 5″x7″ iridescent, interference, and traditional watercolor on Arches cover black paper.

Midnight, detail, by Amy Crook

Midnight, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the shine of blue partially obscured by the black that runs over and through it, but can’t completely obscure the bright metallics. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, sun lighting up the highlights and shadows drawing you into the depths.

Midnight, framed art by Amy Crook

Midnight, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
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Blood Moon 4

Sunday, May 4th, 2014

Blood Moon 4 by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 4 by Amy Crook

May the Fourth be with you! I chose a swirly, spiraled abstraction of a real-life space phenomenon today to go with the long time ago and far, far away that today brings to mind.

It’s a bright, warm afternoon when I’m writing this, and the cold hour standing outside when I saw the Blood Moon eclipse does seem rather long ago and far away. I spent almost an hour staring up at the sky, eyes fixed on the sliver of moon above through the haze of clouds that waxed and waned. I could only see Spica and Mars of all the bright objects, because I’m in the middle of a city in the middle of a lot of other cities, but I could see enough to be worth the chilled feet.

Blood Moon 4, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor, duochrome watercolor, and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.

Blood Moon 4, detail, by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 4, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the bright red and gold glitter shining atop the much more muted red-brown and white eclipsed moon. Below, you can see the piece in a frame with its shining mist.

Blood Moon 4, framed art by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 4, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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