Posts Tagged ‘red’
Mood Ring
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Mood Ring, abstract watercolor painting by Amy Crook, $323
More experiments with the awesome black paper this week. This paper is actually colored by a chemical reaction in the paper pulp when they manufacture it, so the velvety black color is completely lightfast. Possibly more so than the paint and inks I use, actually.
The deep purple paint nearly disappears into the paper, but the opaque red pulls it into visibility, and both colors dye the salt here and there. I think I did tint this salt with ink as well, but I’m having a hard time remembering. The end result had a very ’70s feel to it to me, hence the title. Yeah, I said hence.
Mood Ring, 5″x5″ watercolor and salt on paper, $323 framed, with free shipping.
Something about the middle ring in the group of 3 catches the light much more than the other rings, which you can see in the detail below.
Mood Ring, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Below you can see the purple and red paint bleeding into the salt in the circles down in the lower right. I also made an iPhone wallpaper of the three central circles, and am sneaking it in here for those who read all the words.
Mood Ring, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And this one actually does fit into a frame, so you can see it next to my iPhone (for scale only, sorry) below.
Mood Ring, framed art by Amy Crook, $323
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: black, for sale, purple, red, salt, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 22
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 22 by Amy Crook
Some cheerful Christmas red tentacles for the Tuesday before! Well, all right, the shade’s a bit more bloody than Santa usually likes, but I’m not going to be the one to tell Cthulhu that.
I went with a very simple, stylized pattern on the tentacles this time, which makes them look a bit like monster fingers, creepy scratch marks, or perhaps long, wavy hair. The surface of the tentacles is subtly textured from the granulating Lunar Black watercolor, too, and it’s even more obvious in person.
Tentacle Deeps 22, 4″x8″ watercolor on paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, red, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Zen Red Bird
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Zen Red Bird by Amy Crook
I was enjoying the pure, rich red pigment of one of my red Japanese watercolors, and I decided to paint something simple and zen. I added in just a touch of black for the bright eye and dark beak to create a seasonal red bird, but I think the essence of the image is in that first red swoosh down the bird’s back. It makes a good reminder to keep it simple this holiday season, and not go flying right out of the frame trying to do too much.
Zen Red Bird, 6″x6″ watercolor on paper, nfs (sold).
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: nfs, red, sold, watercolor, zen
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Tentacle Deeps 20
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 20 by Amy Crook
Usually for these I paint the background and then put in the tentacles, but this time I decided to go about it the other way. The watercolor wash didn’t disturb the Sharpie in the foreground at all, though it did give the tentacles a distinct red tint. It did soften the grey pen-and-ink tentacles in the background so they look a bit more surreal.
I still need to properly frame this one because of the odd size, but rest assured, like all of the Tentacle Deeps series, this painting will ship framed to its future home.
Tentacle Deeps 20, 4″x8″ mixed media on paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black, brush pen, for sale, red, sharpie, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 18
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 18 by Amy Crook
More tentacles! I started this piece with salt that had already been gently used and had a coating of color on the outside, arranging them in a pattern that made me think of balloons floating up or perhaps fluff blowing off a dandelion. Once I got the idea to attach them to tentacles, however, I couldn’t resist! I used several shades of red and orange ink to create the tentacles, and of course my scanner hates red dyes and so a lot of the subtle gradation you can see in person is lost.
I decided to create the “deeps” part of the painting with simple crosshatching, electing to go with a fairly loose style which often ran into the tentacles, which makes them just a bit more unreal. I do wonder what the salt pools represent in this context, attached at the end of each vivid red tentacle. Egg sacs? Sensory organs? Lunch?
Tentacle Deeps 18, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 18, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: black, crosshatching, for sale, pen and ink, red, salt, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 16
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 16 by Amy Crook
It’s Tuesday and that means tentacles! This is painted on a handmade postcard from India, just like Tentacle Deeps 12 & Tentacle Deeps 13.
I actually use the same two colors of paint for the wash on this as yesterday’s art, but the fade is much looser, and there’s no pure pigment, just different mixtures. When I went to put the tentacles on, it struck me that I hadn’t done a horizontal one yet, and so I used the granular lunar black watercolor to paint in these tentacles. The paint settled into the groovs in the paper, emphasizing the texture of the paper and letting the background color glow through the black as though the tentacles are strangely translucent.
Tentacle Deeps 16, ~4″x6″ watercolor on handmade paper.
I can’t resist taking these bottom-up shots whenever I’m photographing these tentacle pieces these days, even though there’s no salt at all on this one.
Tentacle Deeps 16, detail, by Amy Crook
Here we are, a photo of the framed piece with my iPhone providing scale.
Tentacle Deeps 16, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, orange, red, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 15
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
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
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
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, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: brush and ink, crosshatching, for sale, orange, pen and ink, red, salt, tentacle deeps
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