Posts Tagged ‘salt’
Hibiscus Pink
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Hibiscus Pink by Amy Crook, $323
If a paper doesn’t have the right pH to change the hibiscus tea to blue, it dries a rich, saturated pink with just a hint of violet undertones. The color layers on much more solidly than the blue, soaking into the paper to make it look almost dyed.
This is also the paper that makes gorgeous little flower-like shapes with the salt, which turned out very pale with the assortment of ink colors I chose for the piece. There’s 21 of them, in 3 very similar shades.
It’s a bit of a difficult piece for me to judge because I’m not a fan of pink, but I do think it’s a successful one. The rich color of the tea really permeates the paper, while the inks colored the salt very delicately, giving a good contrast between them.
Hibiscus Pink, 5″x7″mixed media on watercolor paper, $323, framed, with free shipping.
This detail shot shows the subtle raised texture of the salt crystals on the paper, and the sparkle at the center of each salt “flower”.”
Hibiscus Pink, detail, by Amy Crook
When I was making the piece, I tried to make a sort of gradient, distributing the orange, red and pink circles. I always love the way the water droplets pick up the color and shine on the paper, a temporary moment of beauty in the process.
Hibiscus Pink, work in progress, by Amy Crook
The paper on this piece is a little big for a standard 5″x7″ frame, so I might change it out for a matted one if it sells, but here you can get an idea of how it looks framed.
Hibiscus Pink, framed, by Amy Crook, $323
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, hibiscus, pen and ink, salt, tea
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Midnight Blue
Thursday, July 21st, 2011
Midnight Blue, art by Amy Crook
This piece is a deliberate echo of last week’s intricate Cross the Sky, but both simpler and using the iconic blue and yellow color scheme from Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
The stars are monochromatic, first using spirals of orange-gold ink, and then a softer gold mixed to match. The moon is salt-free this time, inked in and then gently blurred with the gold watercolor to give it, too, a bright glow. The pure blue watercolor is bright and joyful, and it dried with a lovely texture in the denser areas. I thought about going in with some black to darken it up, but I like the cheery glow of the piece as is.
Midnight Blue, 7″x5″ pen & ink, salt and watercolor on paper.
The pure blue watercolor is bright and joyful, and it dried with a lovely texture in the denser areas. I thought about going in with some black to darken it up, but I like the cheery glow of the piece as is.
Midnight Blue, detail 1, by Amy Crook
You can see the gentle blurring of the moon below, and the line where a pool of pale gold paint dried.
Midnight Blue, detail 2, by Amy Crook
It looks quite nice in its frame, with the bright colors offset by the black wood.
Midnight Blue, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, moon, pen and ink, salt, stars, watercolor
1 Comment »
Salted Squid 1
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
Salted Squid 1, art by Amy Crook
More of my experiments with making salt into Actual Things, we have a happy little squid! He’s got his feeder tentacles tucked away, but you can count all 8 arms waving cheerily at you from out of the blue. He’s surrounded by colorful coral, or maybe iridescent bubbles, made using salt that had acquired a coat of paint from other pieces and then been saved. The squid is faintly green, but there was a lot of him to spread out a little bit of watercolor pigment, so you’ll have to forgive his pale complexion.
Salted Squid 1, 5.5″x4.25″ pen & ink, watercolor, and salt on paper.
You can see below how the paper gained some fascinating texture in the places where the salt pools formed — that’s because sometimes the salt crystals form inside the paper instead of on top.
Salted Squid 1, detail, by Amy Crook
This cutie insisted to me that he doesn’t need a frame to be awesome, and I’m inclined to agree — the paper’s got a bit of a curve, and it tucks quite nicely onto a shelf. He enjoyed hanging out with my duckies so much, I’ve left him there for the moment. These days I make so much art that I keep swapping out what’s on display.
Salted Squid 1, in situ, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, pen and ink, salt, squid, tentacles, watercolor
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Hibiscus Blue 2
Monday, July 18th, 2011
Hibiscus Blue 2, art by Amy Crook, $444
This second installment in my Hibiscus Blue series is much simpler. I constrained myself to 13 ink spirals, which turned into 13 salt formations. The blue-black pen dyes the salt a very compatible color to the shade the hibiscus tea turns when painted onto this paper, so the whole painting has a very harmonious feel to it. The tea starts out a bright ruby-red, and then changes in color from anywhere to a soft lavender to a deep, rich blue, depending on the amount of tea on the page, among other things.
The whole painting gives the feeling of rain softly pattering onto a pool of blue water, as the concentric rings of color fade and interact between each set of circles.
Hibiscus Blue 2, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $444, framed, with free shipping.
Hibiscus Blue 2, framed art by Amy Crook, $444
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, hibiscus, hibiscus blue, pen and ink, salt
Hibscus Blue 1
Monday, July 11th, 2011
Hibiscus Blue 1 by Amy Crook, $323
I can’t remember who it was that suggested I try out hibiscus tea after I started using regular old black tea on some of these works, but thank you!
It’s fascinating the way the rich, ruby red liquid turns blue when added to certain papers, which is apparently the natural anthocyanins reacting to the pH. I love how multiple layers gave me different shades of blue, and I combined this with the salt circles to create a harmonious whole.
I actually made 21 circles of salt on this page, 7 in each of 3 different shades of blue pen, but the 2 lighter blues turned nearly identical when mixed with the salt and water. I ended up dissolving one of the circles completely to create some visual space in the piece, which I then filled with layer upon layer of the hibiscus tea.
Each layer had to dry before I could work with it more, since it doesn’t stop developing color until it’s fully dry, so this piece took days to get from blank page to finished art.
Hibiscus Blue 1, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, $323, framed, with free shipping.
Here you can see the sparkle that’s lost in the scanner, and the purple-blue color that the hibiscus tea stained the salt crystals.
Hibiscus Blue 1, detail, by Amy Crook
The piece is safely tucked into its frame and ready to come hang on a wall, find a spot in a bookshelf or perhaps stand up on your desk at work.
Hibiscus Blue 1, framed, by Amy Crook, $323
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: blue, for sale, hibiscus, hibiscus blue, pen and ink, salt, tea
Goth Vines
Thursday, July 7th, 2011
Goth Vines by Amy Crook, $222
Inspired by the same sort of Tim-Burton-esque design as Saturday’s Deplorable Figurine, this piece combines the fractal salt images with pen-and-ink drawing that was later softened with a wet brush.
Despite the fact that I no longer dress up much, my Goth tastes still permeate a lot of my life, from the Living Dead Doll in her coffin atop my bookshelf to the plethora of Nightmare Before Christmas collectibles around the house. I’ve always enjoyed things that make me say, “That’s so weird!” That sensibility shows up in my work sometimes, like today’s piece, not to mention all the zombies, vampires and other such cartoons.
Goth Vines, 5″x5″ ink and salt on watercolor paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
The now-blue spirals started out as black fountain pen ink, but the water drew out the brown-gold portion of the ink, making golden haloes around the blue-grey centers. The effect gives them an odd glow where they attach to the end of the vines, though actually the vines were drawn in later.
Goth Vines, progress, by Amy Crook
I really think this detail shot I got is gorgeous, especially at extreme closeup – click on it (or nearly any image in my posts) to see it bigger!
Goth Vines, detail, by Amy Crook
I like the way the vines seem to grow out of the narrow black frame I found for them.
Goth Vines, framed, by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black, for sale, goth, pen and ink, salt
1 Comment »
Snowflakes
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Snowflakes by Amy Crook, $222
After seeing the lovely crystal formations in Aglow, I decided to test out what I could get with blue ink and the same paper. The effect was extremely simple but quite lovely, so I decided to keep it as is rather than muddle it up with anything else.
Snowflakes, 5″x5″ pen and ink and salt on watercolor paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
Here’s a shot of one of the snowflakes up close.
Snowflakes, detail, by Amy Crook
It’s enhanced well by a very simple black frame.
Snowflakes, framed art by Amy Crook
I’ve put a detailed set of shot of the progress behind the cut, so you can see how the snowflakes grew.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, for sale, pen and ink, salt
1 Comment »
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