Posts Tagged ‘skull’

Vampire Moon

Monday, September 17th, 2012

Vampire Moon by Amy Crook

Vampire Moon by Amy Crook
(Halloween is on its way, hooray, hooray!)

Skulls and candy and spooky things are starting to appear all over the US, and it put me in a Halloween mood. I’d been meaning to see if I could control the shadowy patterns on my moons better, so this was an excellent way to experiment. The fanged skull on the ghostly white full moon is accompanied by a reddish, iridescent mist curling through a night sky strangely devoid of stars.

Spooky!

Vampire Moon, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.

Vampire Moon, detail, by Amy Crook

Vampire Moon, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the iridescent red paint shimmering against the matte black paper, with the moon lurking in the background. Below, I’m all ready for Halloween with my Godiva Bear and the framed art.

Vampire Moon, framed art by Amy Crook

Vampire Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
(bear and iPhone not included)

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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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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Los Muertos 1

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Los Muertos 1 by Amy Crook

Los Muertos 1 by Amy Crook

This piece was born out of pure play. I first brushed in a spiral in watery black ink, and then I watered the ink down even further to make lighter and lighter greys to play with. I also added in a tiny bit of color here and there, which is almost completely obscured by the later crosshatching. Then I used a green fountain pen to crosshatch around the main shape, starting while the paper was wet and letting it dry as I worked, so some of the lines are more blurred than others.

Then I wet down the central area all over again and used a black pen to ink there, and when I was done, the whole thing reminded me of one of those elaborately decorated Day of the Dead skulls. I got my dark red fountain pen (which the scanner decided was rather more magenta than the real thing) and drew spiral eyes, and then signed the piece using that red as well.

The end effect is rather creepy, but as I’m fond of creepy, that works out well.

Los Muertos 1, 5″x7″ pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Jolly Santa

Friday, December 10th, 2010

Jolly Santa by Amy Crook

Jolly Santa by Amy Crook

This is another of my holiday cards from a few years ago, and one of my all-time favorites. I just really liked the sketchy, brush-pen linework and the realistic shapes of the bones, combined with the cheery red of the Santa hat to make a very unique pirate flag indeed.

Happy Holidays!

Categories: Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Whiteboard Doodles

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

Whiteboard Brain in a Jar by Amy Crook

I got a whiteboard! Well, a stick-on whiteboard, which I’ve put on the back of the linen closet door.

I also acquired a rather odd assortment of marker colors, though I’ve bought a more normal set to supplement with now. The bright ’80s turquoise especially was hard to photograph, so it’ll be nice to have some boring blue.

Today I thought I’d share some of the silly doodles I’ve done on the whiteboard, with the to-do lists, reminder notes and other randomness carefully cropped out.

Sorry about the picture quality, poor lighting + iPhone camera = even more meh than usual.

Whiteboard Cthulhu by Amy Crook

Whiteboard Cthulhu by Amy Crook

Whiteboard Violets by Amy Crook

Whiteboard Violets by Amy Crook

Whiteboard Weeble Vampire by Amy Crook

Whiteboard Weeble Vampire by Amy Crook

Whiteboard Skulls by Amy Crook

Whiteboard Skulls by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Tentacles, Whimsical and Strange, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Pigeonholed

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Pigeonholed by Amy Crook

Pigeonholed by Amy Crook

I painted this around the same time as some of my other abstract and semi-abstract pieces, and you can see some technical similarity with Precious and Untitled Experiment 1. The jewel-tone colors sneak through the black texture, and contrast with the frame around the sad, pigeonholed head. It’s hard to capture the subtle colors in a photograph, but the piece has a lot of depth in real life.

I actually sold this painting years ago to a friend who was moving at the time, and although it’s long paid for, he never did manage to pick it up and take it home, so I hold it in trust for him. Hey, Josh, come get your art!

Pigeonholed, 16″x20″ oil on canvas, sold.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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