Posts Tagged ‘iridescent’
Tentacle Deeps 31
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 31, watercolor by Amy Crook
I’m still enamored of these paints that are ghostly pale from some angles, and richly colored from others. This one looks like fine gilding from the right angle, but turns almost white and translucent from the wrong one. I couldn’t resist the idea of golden tentacles, though!
Tentacle Deeps 31, 4″x6″ watercolor on paper.
My camera picked up the golden color quite well, though I ended up leaving the background a little more purple than it is in reality because, well, it looks cool.
Tentacle Deeps 31, detail, by Amy Crook
The piece looks nice framed, below, with my usual iPhone for scale. I considered using a dollar, but then, I have no idea of my international readers (hi!) know how big a dollar is, and yet it’s safe to assume most of you have seen someone holding their iPhone. Weird.
Tentacle Deeps 31, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, gold, iridescent, purple, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Forest Dragon
Monday, March 26th, 2012
Forest Dragon by Amy Crook, all rights reserved
I swear, this commission took all the time in the world, but I will admit I’m happy with the results. I was pretty sure I would be once I got it past the ass point, but you never really know until it’s all done. Molly is very happy indeed, and I hope she gets well soon so she can come collect it!
“All I had was the idea of a dragon in a forest and I was so lucky to have Amy bring what I really had in mind to life. And with the snap shots of the progress along the way I got to be more and more excited by the final result. The details of the scales are my favorite part.”
Forest Dragon, 24″x18″ oil paint on canvas, nfs (commission).
I’ve taken a bunch of detail shots for you, just so you can appreciate the awesomeness.
Forest Dragon, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the sun shining through the Dragon’s spines and onto the texture, iridescent scales. Below, another shot of sunlight, this time streaming through the trees and making the leaves appear translucent.
Forest Dragon, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Sunlight and shiny things are a bit of a theme, which is apropos for a dragon, I think.
Forest Dragon, detail 3, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the wings, which are translucent and let the trees behind them show faintly through, as well as the dragon’s ridges. Below, an oblique close-up of the tail so you can see the physical texture of the scales, and the more visual texture on the hoard of gold.
Forest Dragon, detail 4, by Amy Crook
If you’re considering a commission of your own, email me! I’ve got a few things in the queue already, but I’d be happy to talk about putting your painting next in line.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: all rights reserved, commission, dragon, iridescent, nfs, oil paint, oil painting, tree
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Interfering Blues
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
Interfering Blues, abstract art by Amy Crook, $234
This is another of those pieces that’s challenging to photograph, and I totally did it to myself. I had the lovely ultramarine spirals already as a simple, elegant piece, but they sat around for weeks feeling unfinished before I got my new shiny Japanese watercolors. I used the blue from the pearlescent set to paint a second set of ghostly spirals atop the first, which are barely visible from some angles, and from others take on a lovely iridescent blue hue.
I’m definitely doing well with my new year’s resolution to paint more spirals on things, and I have to admit there’s something I find really charming about this particular set. The colors and shapes are very simple and bold, but they work for me.
Interfering Blues, 6″x6″ watercolor on paper, $234 with free shipping.
Interfering Blues, detail 1, by Amy Crook
These pieces are deeply frustrating to photograph. For instance here, the paper is really a nice bright white, but since the shine is even brighter but also blue, I can’t really color balance the way I’d like to. But, at least you can see the pale blue shine on some of the spirals at this angle!
Interfering Blues, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Above is more of a close-up of just one spiral, which captures the full range of color on the paint from a pearly warm white on the right to the shining blue on the left. This is such a nifty image I made a computer wallpaper of it, if you’d like a little more interference blue in your day.
The piece ships unframed for $234, but if you’d like me to frame it for you (or want to talk about anything, really!), feel free to email me about it.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: blue, for sale, interference, iridescent, watercolor
Outlier
Friday, March 16th, 2012
Outlier, abstract art by Amy Crook, $399
Sometimes I can’t really explain why I like a piece of art, I just really do, and this is one of those. The scan really doesn’t do it justice, the green whorls and rays, and the purple lines joining the various salt pools. This one started with the salt pools in varying color intensities, then I put in the gel pen lines, and finally the spirals of watercolor. The watercolor picked up the glitter from the pen lines, and so there’s a subtle shimmer all through each one.
Outlier, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, $399 framed, with free shipping.
Outlier, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above is the smallest, darkest and furthest-flung of the salt pools. There’s a little scribbled spiral of purple around just this one outlying pool, and you can see how the glitter got distributed all through the spiral of watercolor. Below, a photo of three of the other pools in a row (and that wash of red in the upper left my camera seems determined to give this paper, sigh). I made an iPhone wallpaper of a similar shot, and I’m using it for my lock screen right now. Or at least until I change my mind again.
Outlier, detail 2, by Amy Crook
I like the way it looks in a frame, too, as though everything’s pulling against the purple lines and trying to find a way to sneak out of the frame entirely, tied together by forces you can’t quite name.
Outlier, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, glitter gel pen, green, iridescent, purple, salt, watercolor
Violet Way
Monday, March 12th, 2012
Violet Way, abstract art by Amy Crook
This is a larger piece like Golden Moon, done with the same black paper. This time I used a pearlescent violet paint and created a swath of larger stars, then filled in with smaller, salt-free spirals to give a feeling of clustered stars, like looking up at the Milky Way. This paint looks white from some angles and a lovely pale violet from others; the scanner picks up the violets pretty well, so for once I think the colors are pretty accurate.
Violet Way, 10″x8″ iridescent Japanese watercolor and salt on Arches cover black paper.
Like most of my salt paintings, this one started in the spirit of experimentation. I just bought some new watercolors from Japantown (along with ALL the pens), and I wanted to see how they’d work with the salt. techniques. I made a special effort to mix extra paint into the water droplets after they were on the paper, and you can see how it looked while I was working on it below.
Violet Way, work in progress, detail 1, by Amy Crook
You can see one freshly-painted spiral at the bottom, and then the water droplet just above that and to the left is opaque with swirled paint. It settled out after a while, as you can see in the droplets further away, but the salt pools have a definite coating of iridescent paint you can see in the next photo.
Violet Way, work in progress, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Below you can see a more oblique shot of one tiny detail in the finished piece, one single pool of salt surrounded by the little echoing spirals. I really love the way you can see each individual salt crystal, especially if you click through to the larger version of the image.
Violet Way, detail, by Amy Crook
I’ve also made a computer wallpaper, should you like to splash my artificial stars across your computer screen. Finally, you can see it in its frame below, attempting to turn itself into a mirror. Glass reflects, who knew?
Violet Way, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Free Wallpapers
Tags: black paper, iridescent, moon, nfs, salt, spirals, violet
Positive Space
Friday, March 9th, 2012
Positive Space, abstract art by Amy Crook, $333
The inverse (and slightly smaller) companion to yesterday’s piece, Positive Space uses coppery paint and copper-colored glitter gel pen on black paper to create a halo of light around the spiral “stars.” I had actually created the salt pools on this one at the same time I did Monday’s Moonglow. I have two little pots of iridescent paint I got as samples, and I tend to use them on pieces at the same time, though rarely the same piece.
I liked the effect of Negative Space so much, however, that I took this work in progress and used the same technique to make a not-quite-mirror image. I like that they’re not exactly the same — the halos on this one tend to be bigger and scatter wider, and of course they’re different sizes. A bit like last week’s Spirals Trio, thematically linked but not matchy-matchy.
Positive Space, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $333 framed, with free shipping.
Randomly, if you ever get frustrated with the term “mixed media,” just check out the tags at the bottom of the post. I try to list all the media I’ve mixed down there.
Positive Space, detail, by Amy Crook
The sunlight reflects beautifully off the copper-toned salt, ink and paint in the detail photo, above. Below, you can see the painting with my iPhone for scale. To see it beside its friend, check out yesterday’s post.
Positive Space, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, copper, for sale, glitter gel pen, iridescent, salt, that space pair, watercolor
Moonglow
Monday, March 5th, 2012
Moonglow by Amy Crook
Sparkly green and purples sit suspended in deep, rich black. For some reason it reminded me of one of my favorite oil paint colors, even though it’s not at all the same shade of purple, but I still named the piece Moonglow after the paint.
The watercolor paint I used in the salt pools separated, with the green pigment all going into the salt and leaving the sparkly violet swirls attached to the paper for a very nifty effect. I carried it through with purple and green glitter gel pen, adding smaller spiral stars and drawing in the eerie, barely-there moon.
I’ve totally embraced my sparkly side, too, and bought more glittery pens in Japantown as well as some pearlescent paints. Expect to see more shiny!
Moonglow, 7″x5″ iridescent watercolor, salt and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Moonglow, detail 1, by Amy Crook
The first detail photo, above, totally exaggerates the separation of the paint, the sunlight making the salt practically glow while the purple spirals catch the light. The second one, below, shows the play of green and purple gel pen in the moon. Spirals!
Moonglow, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, for sale, glitter gel pen, green, iridescent, moon, salt, violet, watercolor
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