Posts Tagged ‘pen and ink’
Weeble Wednesday: Dancing Skeleton
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
Dancing Skeleton by Amy Crook
This little guy is a sketch I did during a slow moment when I was having a “Meet the Artist” day last month. My window at the Book Shop is down now, but this funky little guy lives on.
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: nfs, pen and ink, weeble
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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Victorian Wallpaper
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Victorian Wallpaper 1 by Amy Crook
After doing my hatboxes for the window display, and reading way too much Edward Gorey and Arthur Conan Doyle, I’ve been itching to try my hand at a Victorian-style wallpaper pattern. This is my first attempt, a little wonky but I like the way my scribbled inks work with the ornate scrollwork. Below I’ve done a few mock-ups of what it might look like in different color patterns. (more…)
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: pen and ink, wallpaper
1 Comment »
S is for Sherlock
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
S is for Sherlock by Amy Crook
Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies is my absolute favourite of works — I get to die first, after all — and so when I was experimenting with my Micron pens the urge to parody BBC’s new Sherlock by mashing up the two was irresistible.
Click the image if you’d like to really see the ridiculously obsessive line work, or just enjoy the smaller version where it all blends into a texture.
I decided to combine the pose from “S is for Susan who perished of fits” and the caption and setting from “N is for Neville who died of ennui” in order to capture the essence of modern Sherlock in his state of utter boredom. The window isn’t precisely true to the show (there’s an ornate railing of some kind outside, and curtains), but I really liked the boring brickwork from the N page, so I copied that faithfully and tediously.
I never really thought I’d learn to like shading in such a time-consuming style, but I’m already thinking about other ways I can make use of it. I’ve already got plans to do a companion piece to this for poor John, since Gorey set me up so very well with “J is for James who took lye by mistake.”
S is for Sherlock who died of ennui, 8.5″x6.5″ pen and ink on sketchbook paper, sold.
You can still get the pair of them as handmade blank greeting cards on Etsy, though!
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: baker street tinies, crosshatching, edward gorey, nfs, pastiche, pen and ink, sherlock, sold
3 Comments »
Resplendent Ennui
Friday, February 11th, 2011
Resplendent Ennui, a Sherlock comic, by Amy Crook
More silly Sherlock cartoons. I spent some time with this exploring a new style, the idea of repeating panels, the textural shading I could do with my snazzy new Micron pen set, and sleep deprivation. Enjoy!
If you’d like a print of this comic (the originals are already gone, yay!), you can pick one up at my Etsy shop.
Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: etsy, john watson, nfs, pen and ink, print, sherlock, sherlock bbc, sherlock holmes
3 Comments »
Weeble Wednesday: Wolfman Hearts You
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
Wolfman + Heart by Amy Crook
This guy’s a little fuzzy on some things, but his heart is warm and furry and all for you! Werewolf, wolfman, lycanthrope, whatever you want to call him, he’s not on anyone’s team.
This Wolfman is the last of the new illustrations for my Monster Heart Coloring Book, aside from the bonus brides. He’s such a classic movie monster I had to include him.
Wolfman and Wolfman’s Heart, both 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on watercolor paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: coloring book, copic marker, for sale, heart, monster, pen and ink, weeble
Texture Experiment 1
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
Texture Experiment 1 by Amy Crook
A while ago I was working on some watercolors, and I played around making some shapes to use as a base for future drawings. I have a lot of small pieces of this thick, soft buff-coloured paper torn out from my printmaking days, and so I used one of those for this. You can see below a few in-progress shots that give you a better idea of what’s hiding under all that texture.
I was inspired by three things for this, first by Kirsty M. Hall’s tendency to draw abstract shapes and textures over already-done drawings and photographs, especially evident looking at some of the great pieces in her 365 Jars project. The second thing was a Jack Skellington drawing I saw earlier this week on Tumblr of all places, and while I love the image out of pure fangirl joy, I was fascinated by the rich textures in the background. On top of that, of course, I had found the process of doing my crosshatched hatbox quite meditative, so I tried to incorporate elements of all three things.
I’ve just bought a set of Micron pens, so I used the second-largest of those to do the black swirl, and then I used a turquoise Pilot fountain pen from Japan, whose ink bled gorgeously into the pale turquoise of the watercolor, adding an extra dimension of contrast between the two sections. Expect to see more of the Micron pens, which I’m a little bit in love with, though I don’t plan to give up my favorite brush pen — I can have pens on the side, it’s an open relationship.
Texture Experiment 1, 5″x5″ pen and ink and watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Below are some progress shots I took with my iPhone. Sorry about the quality, I was txting a friend for encouragement, and I decided to share!
Texture Experiment 1, progress shot 1, by Amy Crook
Texture Experiment 1, progress shot 2, by Amy Crook
Texture Experiment 1, progress shot 3, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: crosshatching, for sale, pen and ink, spiral, watercolor
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