Posts Tagged ‘tentacles’
Opera Squid
Saturday, September 17th, 2011
Opera Squid by Amy Crook
This little guy is made of another delightful real-mineral paint, zoisite, mixed with the eye-searingly vivid opera pink from the same company. The grains of the mineral paint separate from the finer, more staining pink in some places, which gives this cheery little squid a lovely duotone texture. The grey-green of the zoisite becomes a warm neutral when mixed with the pink, ranging from an almost violet grey to a brackish brown.
I had fun with this quick brush sketch, using the quality of the paints themselves to create texture, shape and value. Plus, you know how I do love to paint tentacles.
Opera Squid, 5″x7″ watercolor on paper.
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
Tags: nfs, sketch, sold, squid, tentacles, watercolor
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Salted Squid 2
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
Salted Squid 2 by Amy Crook
Tentacle Tuesday is back with a sequel to the whimsical Salted Squid 1. I wanted to do something more controlled, so I scribbled out a complete squid in green pen and then went over it with water and a brush, and sprinkled the resulting pool with salt. You can see the pen lines still there as darker shadows in the larger shape, and so I decided to stay with that pen-and-ink feeling for the background.
I used two different colors of pen on the background to simulate sunlight shining down fro above, and then left blank circles like bubbles rising up. Then, I used plain water again, this time without the salt, to give a soft, watercolor feeling to the shafts of sunlight, and the darker depths at the bottom.
Salted Squid 2, 7″x5″ salt, pen and ink on watercolor paper.
You can see the even layer of sparkling crystals that make up the body of the squid here, along with some detail on the close pen-and-ink lines.
Salted Squid 2, detail, by Amy Crook
The black frame with its glass gives the feeling of looking into an aquarium, or so I like to tell myself. He looks adorable on my bookshelf, anyway.
Salted Squid 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: crosshatching, for sale, pen and ink, salt, squid, tentacles
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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Not My Squidhole!
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Not My Squidhole! by Amy Crook
Something a little silly for your tentacle Tuesday — squid meets monster. It’s not true love. Sad.
Categories: Daily Art, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Tentacles
Tags: nfs, pen and ink, squid, tentacles
Red Irony
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Red Irony, front cover, by Amy Crook
I have a few of these little folded over pieces of thick, stiff watercolor paper just waiting for me to find something to do with them. This first one had its front painted weeks before the last of its inside panels got their decorations.
When you unfold the first panel of the little square, you get a different Zen circle and surprise tentacles:
Red Irony, detail, by Amy Crook
The inner circle is smaller and a little more broken, and the tentacles seem to be reaching for it, toward some mysterious end.
When you open it further you find that the tentacles are now reaching for a mysterious blue-black circle of paint, accompanied by an appropriate Lovecraft quote.
Red Irony, inside panels, by Amy Crook
From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent.
-H.P. Lovecraft
The starting F has been decorated with twining red tentacles, this panel done with pen and ink in matching shades of blue-black and blood red, rather than watercolor like the rest of the piece.
Red Irony, 10″x4.25″ watercolor and pen and ink on watercolor paper.
This piece is unframed, and really is more suited to standing snuggled up with old books where it can surprise the unwary, and hopefully make them smile at its odd message. The paper is quite stiff and the materials archival, so it should be able to withstand a bit of wear and tear, though I’d still keep it out of reach of little fingers.
For completion, here’s what the back of the piece looks like, though I may add a signature to the blank back panel before it gets slipped away into storage with the rest of my watercolor pieces.
Red Irony, outside panels, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: calligraphy, for sale, lovecraft, pen and ink, red, tentacles, watercolor, zen circle
Whiteboard Tentacles
Saturday, May 14th, 2011
Whiteboard Tentacles by Amy Crook
Bonus tentacles for Saturday!
I got tired of my whiteboard and wanted a clean slate, so I took some proper Windex and washed away all the to-do lists and inspired ideas and good intentions and gave myself a clean slate.
Then came the tentacles.
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Tentacles
Tags: nfs, tentacles, whiteboard
Tentacle Planet
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Tentacle Planet by Amy Crook
I guess I’ve just had tentacles on the brain lately! The first day I was experimenting with salt, I painted up the central circle of opaque gouache, which ended up looking a bit like Mars to me when it dried. The salt makes the pigments powder on the page, and you can see a little smear of paint-dust in the upper left from where I brushed it away.
I wasn’t satisfied with just the one layer of paint, though, so I watered down the same pure pigment into a light wash and painted in the halo of tentacles, sprinkling salt carefully at the base of each one, which further affected the surface of the circle around the edges as well.
Tentacle Planet, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Tentacles
Tags: brown, nfs, planet, salt, sold, tentacles, watercolor
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