Posts Tagged ‘sky’
Storm Crows
Tuesday, March 17th, 2020
Storm Crows, 6″x4″ watercolor on paper
The abstract blue-green sky of this painting is so rich and dark, all it needed was some birds fading in and out of the roil of storm clouds. The crows are highlighted with a touch of purple that only shows up at certain angles, just enough that you’ll never entirely lose track of them.
This isn’t an easy one to photograph, and will reward the brave soul who takes it into their home and makes it their own.
Storm Crows, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the purple sheen on the crow’s wings against the dull roil of blue-black clouds. Below, the painting is resting in a frame, waiting to be taken on the winds to its final destination.
Storm Crows, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: crow, duochrome, nfs, primatek, sky, sold, watercolor
Straight On ‘Til Yesterday
Monday, July 15th, 2013
Straight On ‘Til Yesterday, watercolor by Amy Crook
Another watercolor sky, this one dreamy and just a bit odd, with the stars out in full force and a strange planetary-atmosphere glow of color. This is one of those which my scanner just cannot get right, but the framed photo at the bottom gives a really nice sense of the colors involved.
I think of this as secret Doctor Who art, actually — I imagine him standing in the doorway of the TARDIS with his latest companion, pointing up at the stars and making a Peter Pan joke. To the very right you can see the edge of something, planet or satellite or moon, which is completely hidden when it’s in the frame, like a little secret between the artist and collector, or perhaps that’s where the Doctor means to take us after all.
Straight On ‘Til Yesterday, 7″x5″ Japanese watercolor and silver watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Straight On ‘Til Yesterday, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the softly textured sky and bright, twinkling silver stars, and a bit of the fade from turquoise to blue to black. Below, you can see it in a frame, with a sonic screwdriver and much more accurate colors.
Straight On ‘Til Yesterday, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: black paper, for sale, japanese watercolor, sky, stars, watercolor
1 Comment »
Storm
Monday, February 18th, 2013
“I hope the Dwarves find some shelter before those Stone Giants really get going.”
Storm, The Hobbit fan art by Amy Crook
My tiny fandom obsession continues! The mountains dried with lovely blue-violet swirls in their depths, and now there’s Gandalf, contemplating the oncoming storm as he starts to head into the Misty Mountains after Thorin et al. He’s done all in shades of grey as is appropriate, with Glamdring at his side and his staff in hand. Plus the pointy hat, of course.
Storm, 6″x6″ Japanese watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Storm, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of Gandalf with the colors tweaked to help bring out his eyes, er, details. Below, you can see it snugly resting in an 8″x8″ frame, waiting to find a new home.
Storm, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, gandalf, hobbit, mountains, sky, spirals, tiny fandom, watercolor
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Hello City
Friday, August 31st, 2012
Hello City watercolor by Amy Crook
This one’s a bit of an amalgamation of Insomnia City and Seven for a Secret, with the seven crows spiralling up into the endless sky above the funky city. The seventh crow up at the top is dim and distant, barely seen against the vast blue. The city itself is a purplish grey-black with a soft warm yellow glow. This piece would fit nicely into an 8″x10″ frame on a desk, cubicle wall, or in amongst the other art and photos in your home, don’t you think?
Hello City, 4″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Hello City, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the crows fading upward into the bright blue sky, growing harder to see as they become more distant. Below, I’ve temporarily tucked this piece into a frame to show you scale.
Hello City, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals
Tags: blue, city, crow, for sale, sky, watercolor
Aglow
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Aglow by Amy Crook, $699
Something about this piece just makes me happy every time I look at it, the 13 glowing circles reminding me of stars, or fireflies, or even lamps through a dark mist. The dark blue-black background perfectly offsets the magical snowflake-like rosettes that formed when I tried my salt trick on this softer, more porous paper.
Aglow, in progress, by Amy Crook
The other interesting difference with this paper was that the water droplets formed little wells that actually sunk into the paper, making dimples on the back.
Aglow, back, by Amy Crook
When I painted in the background afterward, the paint was drawn straight into the circle by the salt crystals whenever the brush touched the edge of one of the little branches.
Aglow, detail 1, by Amy Crook
This is a really good close-up of a pair of the crystalline structure, so you can see all the detail that gets softened into a simple warm glow when you back up and see it from a distance.
Aglow, detail 2, by Amy Crook
I put it into a wide black frame, which sets off the warmth of the paper and the not-quite-black of the paint really nicely.
Aglow, framed, by Amy Crook
Aglow, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $699, framed, with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: fireflies, for sale, salt, sky, stars, watercolor
2 Comments »
Innocent Stars
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
Innocent Stars by Amy Crook
This piece started out as an experiment to see how the three different pens — blue, green and purple — would fare when wetted with the salt-and-water technique I used for Water Lilies 1. As you can see, the blue hardly bled into the salt at all, the purple let out some pink but stayed largely unblurred, and the green dissolved almost completely. I let it sit for a while on my bookshelf while I pondered what to do next, and eventually I decided that the swirling bright spots reminded me a bit of bright stars.
I mixed up a dark purple-blue-black and layered it into the background in messy, childlike strokes. Then I scattered some smaller salt granules over the wet paint and let it form another, softer set of stars as it dried.
Innocent Stars, 7″x5″ salt, watercolor and pen and ink on watercolor paper, $222 framed with free shipping.
The piece is framed and hanging out in my living room at the moment, just waiting to find a new home.
Innocent Stars, framed, by Amy Crook
Below you can see a couple of close-up details of the salt-and-ink “stars.” My camera was having trouble with the colors, though, so the first one is much more accurate than the second.
Innocent Stars, detail, by Amy Crook
Innocent Stars, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, framed, night, pen and ink, purple, salt, sky, stars, watercolor
2 Comments »
Work In Progress: Bone Orchard
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Bone Orchard, work in progress by Amy Crook
Hard drive problems today, so you get one of my WIPs instead of a proper art post. This one has a great story that I’ll tell another day.
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Works In Progress
Tags: oil painting, sky, wip
