Posts Tagged ‘moon’
Harvest Moon 2
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Harvest Moon 2 by Amy Crook
Even as I’m really developing the salt work into a proper technique, I still learn something new with each piece. This painting began with a lot of painstaking drawing that became nearly obliterated by the process, and ended up with a deceptively simple image with a lot of texture and detail just waiting to be found by the careful viewer.
Harvest Moon 2, 7″x5″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
The central shape actually started as a dense circle of pen-and-ink spirals, but you can only see a tiny shadow of the original ink if you look very closely.
Harvest Moon 2, detail 1, by Amy Crook
When I added the salt and water to it, the golden-orange ink turned into a vividly orange puddle, which then dried to the softer peach color you see in the final product.
Harvest Moon 2, in progress, by Amy Crook
There’s a dense layer of sparkling salt crystals overlaying the entire surface of the ‘moon,’ adding a physical texture on top of the visual texture.
Harvest Moon 2, detail 2, by Amy Crook
The salt layer, like the ink beneath it, formed unevenly based on where the paper warped and the water pooled. Here you can really see the line of dense crystals that runs vertically through the image.
Harvest Moon 2, detail 3, by Amy Crook
And here it is tucked into a frame, ready to find its new home.
Harvest Moon 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: harvest moon, moon, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Eye of the Moon
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Eye of the Moon by Amy Crook
The same day I did the tea washes, I did a few watercolor washes as well, just simple pale circles to do something with later. When I took this one back out the other night, it reminded me of an eye, but also of a pale, cool moon floating in its own gentle glow. The paper around the circle is a bit warped, giving it a touch of subtle halo, which you can just barely see in the image above.
I used the same crosshatch pattern as I did with Blood Moon, only this time I used a deep blue-black rather than the bright red. Instead of adding texture with a contrasting color of ink, I put an abstractly slitted pupil into the center of the white “eye” that gave the whole image an ornate feeling. The high contrast between background and foreground gives this piece much more deliberateness, and this thinner sketchbook paper also held the ink better, with less bleeding.
Eye of the Moon, 7″x5″ watercolor and pen & ink on paper.
I took a progress shot with my iPhone right after I started, so you can see the texture on the wash without the interference of the pattern.
Eye of the Moon, work in progress by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, crosshatching, eye, for sale, moon, pen and ink, watercolor
Seascape
Saturday, March 12th, 2011
Seascape by Amy Crook
This painting has an interesting history. I first painted it many years ago at the urging of an internet friend, and had originally intended to put a mermaid on the rough stones. I wanted to show the waves splashing up against the rocks and give a real impression of spray catching the moonlight, cool and refreshing with just a hint of mystery. Once it dried, I found I liked it just the way it was, and even the friend agreed that it was better like this — though I did do some photoshopping to add in her mermaid for a desktop background.
Cue the passage of many years hanging on my walls in the sun, and we have some distressing fading. I know which color is to blame now, but back in the day I loved the shade so much I didn’t worry enough about lightfastness. Oops!
I finally took the time and effort to use a more lightfast color to repair the sea and sky. You can see below a shot where the upper left has been fixed, and the lower right is waiting for its new infusion of color.
The shot above was taken before it had a chance to dry, so there’s a little glare, but the rich midnight blue sky has been renewed, and it’s ready to be re-hung.
Seascape, 18″x24″, oil on canvas.
Categories: Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, for sale, moon, oil painting, sea
Blood Moon
Monday, February 28th, 2011
Blood Moon by Amy Crook
Tonight I got out some watercolor paper and my paints and sat down to just play. I painted a number of washes for future use. This red-pink circle had dried just enough that, once the paints were put away, I sat with a red fountain pen and just started shading. Once I’d put in a small section of red on red, I started to see the moon shape forming, so I finished it up deliberately. Then, at the end, I took a darker red pen and put in the little spirals, over the places I’d dripped in a bit of blue-black when the wash was still wet.
I used a simpler texture than the one from my Texture Experiment 1, which let the work go faster and less precisely. In general, however, I’m finding a heretofore-unknown penchant for obsessive detail and crosshatching. I must be maturing; the last time I tried it with etching, I hated the fine, tedious work.
Blood Moon, 5″x5″ watercolor, pen and ink on reused watercolor paper, sold.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: blood moon, crosshatching, moon, nfs, pen and ink, sold, spiral, watercolor
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Harvest Moon
Saturday, December 18th, 2010
This painting, like several others, was done for the cover of the Starcycles Calendar (in this case for 2004). We wanted something simple with rich colors, though later on we added in an image of Thoth as a shadow on the golden harvest moon.
Harvest Moon, 10″x14″ oil painting on art board.
As the paints have aged, the once deep blue has taken on a really interesting sheen that only shows in certain lights, adding a really nice violet depth to the sky that contrasts well with the matte, earthy golds.
Categories: Daily Art
Tags: harvest moon, moon, oil painting, starcycles
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WIP: Mother Moon
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
Detail of Moon from work in progress by Amy Crook
This maternal moon is part of a whimsical work in progress that I’ve been very slow in creating this year. It’s taken me ages and it’s not remotely done, but I finally did a bit on it a few weeks ago, including some refinements to this charming lady.
I always forget how the gloomy winter weather makes me want to stay out of the studio, which mostly relies on natural light. Perhaps there’ll be some sun and a free afternoon before the end of the year, so I can get a bit more paint onto several of my waiting canvases.
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange, Works In Progress
Tags: moon, oil painting, wip
Fly Me to the Moon
Saturday, October 16th, 2010
Fly Me to the Moon by Amy Crook
This is another image I designed for a t-shirt using a sketch, this one even more appropriate to the season. A bit of Harry Potter and a bit of Sinatra are together in a witchy Halloween image.
This is definitely my favorite time of year, so enjoy!
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: broom, halloween, Harry Potter, moon, t-shirt
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