Posts Tagged ‘pen and ink’
Weeble Wednesday: Me 3
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Weeble self-portrait by Amy Crook
Weeble Wednesday brings you more me! My red dye is fading, and I decided to do a new one to reflect my current style. Of course, I’ll have to ditch the cardigan and boots now that the weather’s warmed up, but nothing’s perfect, right?
I think this is my most accurate cartoon-me to date — as I was working on it, I actually pulled up some photos and realized that I have very sarcastic eyebrows. I suppose one needs to be naturally good at something, right?
I couldn’t figure out what I wanted the shirt to say, and I’m happy to take suggestions. I want something clever but work safe, which nixed most of my ideas one way or the other.
If you want to be a cartoon yourself, you can click here to get your very own weeble, chibi, fairy or just silly cartoon!
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Tentacles
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, nfs, pen and ink, pencil, weeble
Iridescence
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Iridescence by Amy Crook, $499
Despite the fact that very little about this piece is shiny aside from the salt crystals, it reminds me of the gentle iridescence of bird wings, and that’s where it gets its title. Much like Badlands from last week, this piece has some unusually tall and interesting salt formations, this time created on purpose by using big salt in little puddles.
The other day I mixed up some teal-black paint, and found ways to use it on several pieces but not, ironically, the piece it was originally intended for, which turned out to need more drying time before it was ready for the next step. Here it’s been watered down and then had extra drips and swirls of green and blue added in, which then flowed and dried in the beautiful color patterns you see here.
Iridescence, 7″x5″ watercolor, ink and salt on watercolor paper, $499, framed, with free shipping.
This piece is framed in a shadowbox to protect the salt crystals, and sitting on my bookshelf taking up space I’ll likely need to use for art pretty soon.
Iridescence, framed, by Amy Crook
I love the way some of the salt formations are secretly hollow inside, growing walls around an empty inner space where the original salt crystal sat. This one has another formation gamely trying to start off the top corner, as well, the color dense where the ink was concentrated.
Iridescence, detail 1, by Amy Crook
And this little ziggurat is a textbook formation of simple square crystals.
Iridescence, detail 2, by Amy Crook
As an added bonus to those of you who read this far down, have an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper. I’m using the computer one myself right now!
After using the iPhone wallpaper for a while, I realized that, while it did have my signature on it, it didn’t have my favorite part of the image, the part Molly called a “dragon’s head.” So, for those of you seeing this many days after posting (yay you!), here’s a different iPhone wallpaper.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: blue, for sale, green, iridescence, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
1 Comment »
Microscopic
Friday, June 10th, 2011
Microscopic by Amy Crook, $199
My nerdity is showing with this piece — it looks just like I remember the view through the microscope in biology class years ago, mostly monochrome with the organic shapes against the liquid.
This time I was experimenting with putting the salt and ink on top of a dried wash of watercolor. First I painted the shape with the opaque periwinkle blue gouache, adding in a sprinkling of coarse Kosher salt for texture once it was partially dry. Once the wash had dried overnight, I brushed the salt off the painting, and then used a blue pen to put in the swirls (and sign it, once we were all done). I put a big chunk of salt on top of each swirl, and then used an eyedropper to add water over each spot.
The water didn’t stay as well as it usually does, flowing into the organic shapes you can see above. The salt and ink dissolved into the water, and then after 16 hours or so, the water evaporates, leaving behind the pool of ink and salt crystals which have grown right onto the paper, and are now a permanent part of the artwork. Also, it’s subtly sparkly, which I enjoy.
Microscopic, 5.5″x4.25″ watercolor, salt and ink on archival cardstock, $199, with free shipping.
I’m still working on finding frames for this size of piece, but the salt crystals that form on this paper tend to be smaller and less fragile, so there’s less concern about shipping it unframed.
Microscopic, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, gouache, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Nefarious Parent
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Nefarious Parent by Amy Crook
When my friend Bkwyrm approached me to ask about doing a logo for her new forum for parents with an occult bent, Parentes Nefarii, we tossed back and forth a couple of ideas. In the end, we decided that her budget and needs were best suited to a cartoon — but not of her. This weeble cultist (yep, Weeble Wednesday is back!) is carrying a rather dubious-looking baby, from tentacles to horns.
The innocent baby-blonde curl of hair really makes it for me, especially contrasted with the bald cultist and his bluer-than-blue eyes.
Nefarious Parent, 7″x5″ pen and ink and Copic Marker on watercolor paper, not for sale (commission). This, and all my other commissions, aren’t for free use per the Creative Commons license below — all rights are reserved for the commissioner*.
*And the Commissioner always has Batman on his/her side.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Completed Commissions, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Tentacles
Tags: all rights reserved, cartoon, commission, copic marker, cultist, nfs, pen and ink, tentacle, weeble
Badlands
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Badlands by Amy Crook
This painting reminds me of going through the badlands of South Dakota as a kid on vacation with my family, being surrounded by the pinks and browns and bizarre rock formations that made it seem like being in a whole different world.
Badlands, 5″x7″ ink and salt on watercolor paper.
For whatever reason, a few of the salt formations on this one were particularly tall and strange, especially the one right in the center.
Badlands, work in progress by Amy Crook
You can see here before I added in the brown ink paintings how the shape rises up about a quarter of an inch above the paper, topped with a little plateau-like crystal of darker pink salt.
As a result, I ended up buying a shadow box to frame it in, so the delicate crystals will be safe from jostling and accidental destruction.
Badlands, framed, by Amy Crook
And a couple of extra detail shots, just so you can get a sense of the strange sparkle and depth of the piece.
Badlands, detail, by Amy Crook
Above is another angle on the central salt pillar, now with its accompanying ink washes, and below you can see the heart-shaped crystal formation in the lower left, where three pools merged to form one big shape. You can even faintly see the lines of pink from the original spirals that lend their color to the salt, some of which stayed stubbornly in the paper this time.
Badlands, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: brush and ink, for sale, pen and ink, pink, salt
4 Comments »
Starship Craftybiz 01A
Monday, June 6th, 2011
Starship Craftybiz 01A by Amy Crook (commission)
I couldn’t help but be excited when Tara Swiger, one of my favorite smart people on the internet, asked me to help draw up a starship to help represent her awesome new thing. We talked a little bit about what she was going for, and since she wanted to use it for a bunch of smallish stuff on the internet (like the button below), we decided to go for a combination of coloring book and technical drawing — not too much detail, but with a definite “drawing board” feeling that works with her program.
I got an Early Boarding Pass to the Craftybiz Starship Adventure because I’d taken a lot of her classes and found them really helpful to me, as I’ve begun to build my own business (and especially my Etsy shop). She concentrates on things like figuring out your pricing, where and what to sell, and who to sell it to (hint: it’s people who want your unique thing and have money for it), and leaves the technical business details for others. And yes, all these snazzy links are affiliate links, which means I get a percentage, but I’d give her a glowing review anyway — Tara’s just that cool.
Also, she was an amazing client to work with, clear on what she wanted and good at conveying it, and enthusiastic over the results. A win for everyone!
“Working with Amy was so much easier than I could have hoped for. I was nervous, because this she’s the first illustrator I’ve ever hired. But the process was simple, her illustration was spot on what I had requested, and she made me feel comfortable through the entire thing. Oh, and it was speedy! I had a short window and Amy didn’t leave me waiting.
“Thanks Amy, for making this adventure full of ease and downright fun, I’ll definitely be back for more!”
-Tara Swiger
Here’s the most excellent button she made out of her starship (see how well it shrunk?), and yes, yet another affiliate link:
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art
Tags: all rights reserved, commission, nfs, pen and ink, pencil, starship, tara swiger
6 Comments »
Green Salt Pools
Friday, June 3rd, 2011
Green Salt Pools by Amy Crook
This time I used small chips of salt inside tiny, tight spirals of bright green pen, and put a scant drop of water atop each one. I got small, dense pools of dried salt, almost all of which had a central crystal as well as the border of salt that always forms. This pen came out a pale, yellow-green when it was diluted into the salt, and just like the blue and gold earlier this week, the ink dissolved into the solution completely.
The green in the background is dark and bluish, but the rings around each little salt formation are a brighter green, from the dark shadowy forest to the rich green of leaves overhead to the bright new-leaf green of the salt growth.
Green Salt Pools, 7″x5″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper, $299 framed, with free shipping.
This picture gives you a better feel for the color and texture of the piece:
Green Salt Pools, detail, by Amy Crook
And here you can see it tucked safe in its frame:
Green Salt Pools, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
4 Comments »
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