Posts Tagged ‘tentacles’

Tentacle Monster Too

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

Tentacle Monster Too sketch by Amy Crook

Tentacle Monster Too sketch by Amy Crook

Another silly doodle from a Coloring Book, this guy knows how to keep an eye on his dinner.

Enjoy your weekend!

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Tentacles
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Tentacle Spiral 1

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Tentacle Spiral 1 by Amy Crook

Tentacle Spiral 1 by Amy Crook

I was mucking about with washes, and I thought I’d do something a little different with this pale, almost flesh-toned wash I did on one of my last blank handmade postcards from India. The lunar black paint made exquisite textures as it granulated and pooled in the surface of the card, giving the tentacles a half-real feeling.

I like this effect with the tentacles spiralling in from all sides, so I’ve optimistically called this #1 in the hopes that I manage a series out of it.

Tentacle Spiral 1, 6″x4″ watercolor on handmade postcard.

I took a close-up of one of the spirals so you can really see the texture.

Tentacle Spiral 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Tentacle Spiral 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
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Tentacle Deeps 23

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 23 watercolor by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 23 by Amy Crook

It’s the ghost of tentacles past! Or possibly tentacles future. Who can tell.

There’s a subtle blue-violet tint to the background on this piece that comes through where the white paint picked up the background color.

Tentacle Deeps 23, 8″x8″ watercolor on paper.

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Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
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Tentacle Deeps 22

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Tentacle Deeps 22 watercolor by Amy Crook

Tentacle Deeps 22 by Amy Crook

Some cheerful Christmas red tentacles for the Tuesday before! Well, all right, the shade’s a bit more bloody than Santa usually likes, but I’m not going to be the one to tell Cthulhu that.

I went with a very simple, stylized pattern on the tentacles this time, which makes them look a bit like monster fingers, creepy scratch marks, or perhaps long, wavy hair. The surface of the tentacles is subtly textured from the granulating Lunar Black watercolor, too, and it’s even more obvious in person.

Tentacle Deeps 22, 4″x8″ watercolor on paper.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
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Tentacle Umbrella

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Tentacle Umbrella designed by Amy Crook

Tentacle Umbrella designed by Amy Crook

My poor lovely parasol is in need of repair that I’m not sure I can find anywhere to give it, so when I found a site that made one-off custom umbrellas, well, I couldn’t resist. I originally did the design to be another fabric at Spoonflower, but the file was 3x too big for their uploader — oops — so I shrunk it down and used it for the panels of this umbrella instead.

The photos do a bad job of showcasing the way the background fades from light near the tip to dark at the edges, and of course the writhing purple-black tentacles work well with the slanting, rain-like linework. If you look at it up close, you can see that the lines were scanned from hand-drawn pen lines, and the tentacles have that special Sharpie marker feel to them. My poor computer cried bitter tears when I was putting together the full-resolution, layered file in Photoshop, heh.

ETA: I’ve ordered a Very Limited Edition of 3 more of these, and two are already spoken for. If you’d like the last one for $40 +shipping, let me know! All sold!

Tentacle Umbrella designed by Amy Crook

Tentacle Umbrella designed by Amy Crook

Categories: Daily Art, Tentacles
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Cthulhu’s Gift

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Cthulhu's Gift, cartoon art by Amy Crook

Cthulhu’s Gift by Amy Crook

I’ve been working on holiday cards again this week, and Cthulhu really wants you to like his gift. I decided to make a rather generic gift for the original, and then I drew a page of holiday dingbats — including a delightfully gruesome spike bow of a sort I’ve actually bought and put on gifts myself (minus the blood).

Cthulhu’s Gift, 5″x7″ pen and ink and Copic markers on paper.

Cthulhu's Holiday Gift, cartoon art by Amy Crook

Cthulhu’s Holiday Gift by Amy Crook

The original is, of course, the first version, since this one exists courtesy of Photoshop, but I find I’m rather fond of his baubles. I want a tentacle glass ornament!

This is what he looks like in a frame, though the original won’t be framed unless the buyer requests it for an additional fee.

Cthulhu's Gift, framed art by Amy Crook

Cthulhu’s Gift, framed, by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Jellyfish Deeps

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Jellyfish Deeps, art by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Deeps by Amy Crook

Most of my salt pieces come together in an almost Zen-like way, with the long wait for the salt crystals to form and then a quick flurry of activity as I work with the results. This piece started out with the watercolor background, which took a long time to dry, giving the mixed paint time to separate out into its component colors in some places, while staying a murky purple-black in others. Pen and ink and salt came next, and then the jellyfish in their white gel pen currents swam in last.

It’s interesting how sometimes you can keep adding things to a piece until you ruin it, but other times you have to keep going until it gets past a certain point and turns itself around into something worthwhile. My friend Jeff (who paints wargaming miniatures) calls it “the ass point,” where the piece looks like total ass until you get it to a certain point, and then suddenly all its potential starts to shine through.

I find this point more intimidating than the blank page, since it represents a lot of lost work if it never gets past that point, but there’s a certain satisfaction to having pulled a piece past the ass point and turned it into something I’d want to admit I created.

Jellyfish Deeps, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, nfs, (sold).

Jellyfish Deeps, detail, by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Deeps, detail, by Amy Crook

This one has a lot of detail that just doesn’t show up until you really look at it, from the colors glowing through the white gel pen to the strange salt pools and their range of crystal sizes and densities. You can see it in its frame, below, with my iPhone for size reference.

Jellyfish Deeps, framed art by Amy Crook

Jellyfish Deeps, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
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