Posts Tagged ‘pen and ink’

Tentacle Deeps 17

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 17, art by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 17 by Amy Crook

Yet more tentacles for Tuesday! I used a pure wash of zoisite watercolor, and its granular quality dried in a rather squamous, scale-like texture, subtle and matte with a quality to the paint almost like pastel. The dusty paint mixed in with the pure Sharpie ink of the tentacles, softening the sharp blacks, but I wanted a bit more so I took a grey brush pen and added in a second layer of tentacles behind the first.

Tentacle Deeps 17, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper.

I have to admit, I think every single one of these looks cool photographed from this angle. Plus, you can really see the texture of the paint and paper, here.

Tentacle Deeps 17, detail, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 17, detail, by Amy Crook

I always like how they look like they’re rising up from some other dimension held within the frame, too. What can I say, I’m easily pleased by tentacles.

Tentacle Deeps 17, framed art by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 17, framed, by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
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Watson sketch

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Watson pen sketch by Amy Crook

Watson pen sketch by Amy Crook

Just a little pen-and-ink portrait — I’m practicing a few things about observation and not being able to erase. I did a little tiny bit of tinkering in Photoshop, I will admit, but in the end it only sort of looks like the character. Which, really, given that I’ve got little practice doing portraits or working in pen-and-ink, is pretty much okay.

Maybe the next one will be more awesome.

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Scribble Goth

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Ditzy Bones fabric print by Amy Crook

Ditzy Bones fabric print by Amy Crook

Friday is for fabric! At least this one is. I’ve created a line of fabrics over at Spoonflower called Scribble Goth, made up of scribbly skulls, spikey stripes and even one lone ditzy print of teeny tiny bones.

I haven’t made all of these designs available for purchase yet, because there’s a small but significant cost associated with doing so (it adds up!). If you’d like to buy one of these fabrics for your own projects, just let me know (comment here! contact there! email! twitter! whatever works for you, really) and I’ll buy a swatch for myself so you can get sewing. I’m even willing to make other colorways, if you’d like a blood red skirt or some Halloween orange pajamas.

Scribble Goth Skull Border fabric design by Amy Crook

Scribble Goth Skull Border fabric design in two colorways by Amy Crook

I’ve also made a version of the above border that’s got the rest of the fabric covered in the polka dots below.

Scribble Goth Skully Polka Dot fabric design in two colorways by Amy Crook

Scribble Goth Skully Polka Dot fabric design in two colorways by Amy Crook

I’ve got a trio of stripes using the spikey cross from the border, though I only put two of them in the post.

Scribble Goth Cross Stripe 1 in two colorways by Amy Crook

Scribble Goth Cross Stripe 1 in two colorways by Amy Crook

Scribble Goth Cross Stripe 1 in two colorways by Amy Crook

Scribble Goth Cross Stripe 2 in two colorways by Amy Crook

And my favorite of all the patterns, a different sort of polka dot with the skulls arranged in florets.

Scribble Goth Skull Florets fabric design in two colorways by Amy Crook

Scribble Goth Skull Florets fabric design in two colorways by Amy Crook

Categories: Daily Art, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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A Murder of Crows

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

A Murder of Crows, art by Amy Crook

A Murder of Crows by Amy Crook

This piece uses several different techniques together but really just one pen, although I did go back in and add just a hint of color to the shadowy, sunlit crows in their flight. I’m very pleased with the overall effect, which makes me think of a cover or title page to some mystery novel or horror story. There’s even 13 crows in my murder to make it extra spooky.

A Murder of Crows, 6″x6″ pen & ink and salt on watercolor paper.

I like the way the salt is nearly invisible until the sunlight hits it, adding sparkle and color to an otherwise monochrome image.

A Murder of Crows, detail 1, by Amy Crook

A Murder of Crows, detail 1, by Amy Crook

The curving edges on each bird were partially created by the puddles of inky salt water, an imprecise process at best, which helps to give them a sense of being backed and blurred by strong sunlight.

A Murder of Crows, detail 2, by Amy Crook

A Murder of Crows, detail 2, by Amy Crook

Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Whimsical and Strange
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Weeble Basement Cat

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Weeble Basement Cat cartoon by Amy Crook

Weeble Basement Cat by Amy Crook

Not my usual weeble, but I was inspired by this lolcat to draw my own version of a Basement Cat. What can I say, I spend all day on the internet. At least it’s not Nyancat.

Categories: Daily Art, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
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White Hot

Monday, September 26th, 2011

White Hot, abstract art by Amy Crook

White Hot by Amy Crook

It’s hard to capture the way this piece fairly glows with colour. There’s just two pigments, a pink and a rich orangey-gold that fades to the cream color of the paper in the center. I added seven salt circles, double-drawing the spirals in an orange-red and the apricot gold, so the centers of the salt circles reflect the pink from the corners, and the outer circles of salt crystals reflect the orange from the center.

White Hot, 5″x5″ salt, pen & ink, and watercolor on paper.

White Hot, detail 1, by Amy Crook

White Hot, detail 1, by Amy Crook

The salt crystals add a three-dimensional texture to the image, like planets being drawn into an inverse black hole.

White Hot, detail 2, by Amy Crook

White Hot, detail 2, by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Tentacle Deeps 15

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 15, Cthulhu art by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 15 by Amy Crook

Days of work went into today’s piece, but I think they’re my favorite tentacles yet. I used the same technique of softening pen-and-ink with water as in Tentacle Deeps 14, but then I went through and grew salt crystals along the body of each tentacle. The cross-hatching used three different pens to create the sense of light and depth, and my friend Eric L suggested that it looks like the tentacles are starting to dissolve where the light is hitting them.

Tentacle Deeps 15, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper.

Here you can see a closer view of the texture and the way I created the effect of light fading to darkness.

Tentacle Deeps 15, detail 1, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 15, detail 1, by Amy Crook

I love how this shows off the variation in the tentacle colors, and the way the salt crystals sparkle even with the dark ink suffusing them.

Tentacle Deeps 15, detail 2, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 15, detail 2, by Amy Crook

I finally had the brilliant idea of putting something in the framed shots so you’d get a sense of scale, so enjoy this shot of the tentacles in their frame, hanging out with my iPhone.

Tentacle Deeps 15, framed art by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 15, framed, by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
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