Posts Tagged ‘sharpie’
Twisted Tree
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
Twisted Tree by Amy Crook
Today’s art combines a number of techniques into one unusual piece. The base is a heavy, handmade postcard from India, part of a set I bought years ago with irregular, natural edges. The wash was made with strong black tea, and the texture comes from salt crystals placed on the wet paper. Then, I added a touch of blue paint and a little more salt to create the shape of the bird.
I have to admit, once I saw a bird in the blue, I couldn’t help but think of Twitter, but I think that’s just a sign I spend too much time on social networks.
I broke out my fine-point sharpies in brown and black to create the tree and the detail on the bird, using a loose, scribbly style to create an organic shape that fit with the background.
Twisted Tree, 4″x6″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).
The bird ended up with a bit of an attitude, and I rather imagine him saying something like, “Yeah, yeah, tweet, whatever.” Despite that, he’s got a bit of sparkle to his personality, as you can see here.
Twisted Tree, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Actually, there’s salt crystals in a fine layer all along the lower part of the painting, giving it texture and a subtle glimmer.
Twisted Tree, detail 2, by Amy Crook
It looks quite nice in a simple black frame, and this painting, like always, will ship wrapped up safely and ready to display.
Twisted Tree, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: bird, nfs, salt, sharpie, sold, tea, tree, twitter
Poddleston
Friday, May 13th, 2011
Poddleston by Amy Crook
It’s Friday the 13th, so I thought I’d celebrate with a cartoon of my very own black cat. This doesn’t really look like him per se, but it shares some important features — big ears, wacky tail, and smirky face. His real name is Pod (short for Pteropodidae, the family name for fruit bats), but Poddleston is one of the many nicknames he goes by. I scribbled this up with Sharpie marker, while the real Pod was off somewhere making trouble.
Or napping. Champion nappers, my cats. They could totally nap for nationals.
Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: cat, nfs, pod, sharpie
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Lovecrafty
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
Lovecrafty by Amy Crook
While some pieces come together with effortless synchronicity, others are a struggle from start to finish. This piece was definitely one of the latter, but I’m finally happy with the end result. There’s just something that really amuses me in the way it seems like a cross between Lovecraftian horror and a 12-year-old girl’s diary.
The grey writing is done with a brush pen usually used for shading, the barely-legible words are a couple of especially creepy quotes from HP Lovecraft’s fiction. Blank spaces on the left were filled in with single words or shorter phrases, giving the whole thing a sense of mad, frantic writing, the deranged mind getting out what it’s seen. Or, possibly more insanity-inducing, the inner feelings of a pre-teen.
The images themselves are layered, everything from printer ink to sharpie marker, watercolor to pen and ink. I used water to blur things left and right and there’s even a tiny bit of salt texture, though it doesn’t take very well on this type of paper. I considered adding some tentacle monster green into the mix to dull down the overall cheeriness of the palette, but in the end I couldn’t resist the juxtaposition of color and intent.
Lovecrafty, 5″x7″ pen & ink, watercolor, Sharpie marker and salt on paper.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, quote, salt, sharpie, watercolor
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Moleskine Cahier: Limned
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Limned, customized Moleskine Cahier journal by Amy Crook
I’ve had a little pile of these Moleskine Cahier journals sitting with my drawing supplies for weeks now, but haven’t been really inspired for what to do with them. I took one to bed with me to ponder one night when I was too wound up to sleep but tired of my usual workspaces, and after a while this idea came to mind. It’s very similar in form to another piece, Growth, but in this case the form itself is a negative space limned by a cluster of silver dots, rather than the painted circle in the first piece.
Limned, 3.5″x5.5″ silver Sharpie on Moleskine Cahier journal, $23 with free shipping.
Cahier Journals sport a heavy-duty black cardboard cover, with visible thread stitching on the spine. Inside each journal you’ll find acid-free paper pages and a spacious pocket for notes or clippings. Size: 3.5 x 5.5 in. (9 x 14 cm), 64 plain pages each, last 16 sheets detachable.
Because of the simplicity of the art on the front, I chose to sign & date this one on the back instead.
Limned, customized Moleskine, back, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Moleskines, Series and Books
Tags: black, for sale, moleskine, sharpie, silver
Cthulhu Moleskine Volant
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Cthulhu Moleskine Volant customized by Amy Crook
The green of this Moleskine’s original cover just reminded me of the tentacles of an Elder God for some reason. Here he’s shown rising up over a field of silvery stars, or perhaps he’s slumbering with a blanket of the vast sky to keep him warm in the depths of R’lyeh.
Cthulhu, Moleskine Volant customized with oil paint Sharpie markers, nfs (sold).
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: cthulhu, etsy, moleskine, nfs, oil paint markers, sharpie, sold
2 Comments »
Moleskine Volant: Clusters
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
Clusters Volant by Amy Crook
This is the second of the pair of blue Volant notebooks, in a lighter blue. This one I drew with a more abstract design in just two colors of oil paint marker, blue and black. I wanted to explore the idea of clusters of objects, and interconnectedness, without getting too obsessive about the details. The first clusters I drew at the top were close-fitting and made me think of blackberries, so as I moved downward I tried to add a little more space and looseness to their structure.
Clusters, 5″x8.25″ Sharpie oil markers on a 96-page blank Moleskine Volant. $29 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Moleskines
Tags: for sale, moleskine, oil markers, sharpie, volant
Moleskine Volant: Dragonflies
Monday, February 14th, 2011
Dragonflies Volant by Amy Crook
A while back I picked up a 5-pack of Sharpie oil-based paint markers, wanting to experiment with the medium a little bit, and then (like so many such purchases) I totally didn’t make the time. We were talking on Twitter last night about the issue of buying supplies for new media and it inspired me to pull out some blank Moleskine Volants (a blue 2-pack) and play around.
I have a few pieces of dishware from Japan with dragonflies on them, and I’ve always found them fascinating, maybe because we didn’t really have them where I grew up. I have a really limited palette here, so I just toyed around with the various possible color combinations on the three big guys, then added in the little guys for some extra interest. The notebook in this case is a really dark blue that’s nearly black, so it provided a dramatic backdrop for the bright primary dragonflies.
Dragonflies, 5″x8.25″ Sharpie oil markers on a 96-page blank Moleskine Volant, nfs (sold).
Categories: Daily Art, Moleskines, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: dragonfly, moleskine, nfs, oil markers, sharpie, sold, volant
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