Posts Tagged ‘red’
Red Irony
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Red Irony, front cover, by Amy Crook
I have a few of these little folded over pieces of thick, stiff watercolor paper just waiting for me to find something to do with them. This first one had its front painted weeks before the last of its inside panels got their decorations.
When you unfold the first panel of the little square, you get a different Zen circle and surprise tentacles:
Red Irony, detail, by Amy Crook
The inner circle is smaller and a little more broken, and the tentacles seem to be reaching for it, toward some mysterious end.
When you open it further you find that the tentacles are now reaching for a mysterious blue-black circle of paint, accompanied by an appropriate Lovecraft quote.
Red Irony, inside panels, by Amy Crook
From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent.
-H.P. Lovecraft
The starting F has been decorated with twining red tentacles, this panel done with pen and ink in matching shades of blue-black and blood red, rather than watercolor like the rest of the piece.
Red Irony, 10″x4.25″ watercolor and pen and ink on watercolor paper.
This piece is unframed, and really is more suited to standing snuggled up with old books where it can surprise the unwary, and hopefully make them smile at its odd message. The paper is quite stiff and the materials archival, so it should be able to withstand a bit of wear and tear, though I’d still keep it out of reach of little fingers.
For completion, here’s what the back of the piece looks like, though I may add a signature to the blank back panel before it gets slipped away into storage with the rest of my watercolor pieces.
Red Irony, outside panels, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: calligraphy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, red, tentacles, watercolor, zen circle
Tentacle Deeps 10
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 10 by Amy Crook
Tuesday is a great day for tentacles, don’t you think?
The rich, bloody red of this paint seemed to cry out for dark, velvety tentacles, so I did just two layers and then snuck in something new, a background effect with salt and an opaque yellow paint that created red salt crystals where it overlapped the background, and subtle white ones on the edges of a few of the tentacles. The extra detail seems to increase the feeling of eldritch horror, as though madness lies just around the corner if one could comprehend the meaning behind it all.
Tentacle Deeps 10, 5″x5″ watercolor and salt.
I’ve also made an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper out of this one, as well, enjoy!
Tentacle Deeps 10, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, red, salt, tentacle deeps, watercolor
Meteoric
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Meteoric by Amy Crook
This piece went through several incarnations and changes. My original red wash turned a peachy-orange that I wasn’t expecting when it dried with the salt, and the crater-like formations in the lower left needed something to balance them out. At first I tried adding another layer of salt craters, but that didn’t really help the imbalance, and so I ended up taking first the lighter red and then a dark burgundy pen and drawing in the lines, which tended to blur and spread whenever the pen passed over an area that had been densely soaked in salt water. Then I added one final wash of plain water in the corner, blurring and mixing the reds into a rather surprising fuchsia through which the lines can still be faintly seen.
Though the first incarnation had some accidental overtones with the pink salt spots in the center of soft peach circles, the final has a rather science fiction feel of a meteor shower streaking downward to further ravage the damaged orange surface of the planet below.
Meteoric, 5″x5″ watercolor and pen and ink on watercolor paper, $169 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, fuchsia, orange, pen and ink, red, salt, watercolor
Red
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Red by Amy Crook
As promised, this is my other piece that’s simply called Red. Like last week’s piece, the reds are dark and intense, though this time they’re offset not by white paper but by the yellow ochre painted border. The different shades of red are also different textures, you can see some of the flash glare on the painting where the paint’s glossy, compared to the deep matte color of the bottom section.
This is actually quite a large painting, two feet by three feet, and although the edges are unfinished, I think it hangs just fine as is.
Red, 24″x36″ oil painting on canvas, $1299 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, oil painting, red
Icon
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
Icon, 1″x1″ etching on a 10″x4″ piece of watercolor paper
This is another tiny etching plate, which I inked using a method where the figure, who was etched deep enough to leave an impression in the paper, was inked in yellow, then the plate was wiped mostly clean and the rest of the surface was re-inked in red.
In classical art, yellow is the color of suffering, and of course in modern times we’re all about red for pain and blood. The diluted ink actually bled down the paper a little when it was run through the press, adding to the symbolism.
I actually did a whole series of crucifixion pieces during that time period, though this is definitely the smallest of the lot — the plate itself is only one inch square.
Icon, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
Tags: crucifix, etching, for sale, intaglio, red, small plates, yellow
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My Heart Bleeds
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
My Heart Bleeds by Amy Crook
This rather morbid watercolor was one of my unValentines this year, a cross between a tradition and realistic heart. The blood red paint dried in thick pools and was allowed to drip naturally, nearly to the bottom of the card — in its frame, the chrome picks up the reflection as it disappears at the bottom edge. Blue veins call to mind a real heart as they trace across the surface.
My Heart Bleeds, 4″x6″, watercolor on watercolor postcard.
Categories: Daily Art, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: for sale, heart, red, unvalentine, watercolor
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