Posts Tagged ‘words’
Licensing: Ear to the Wall
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
Ear to the Wall by Carrie Causey,
cover & interior illustrations by Amy Crook
It was over 2 years ago that I posted my Victorian Wallpaper design, with all its scribbly whimsy. Recently Google brought the post to Jason from Ampersand Books, and he wrote to me asking to use the art for the cover & interior of one of their little poetry chapbooks. They went with a gorgeously intense (and hard to photograph!) red and blue for the cover, with faded greys inside and pure black and white in the inside covers.
I haven’t had time to read any of the poetry yet, but the book itself is very cool looking, in my totally biased opinion. Sherlock seems to find the titles intriguing, anyway!
Ear to the Wall, detail of cover art
Above you can see the rich color and linen texture of the printed cover art, with my tiny skulls still just visible in the design. You can get your own copy of Ear to the Wall by Carrie Causey here at Ampersand Books.
If you find yourself interested in licensing any of my work for commercial use, feel free to contact me here.
Categories: Completed Commissions, Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: all rights reserved, licensing, words
4 Comments »
Letters and Light
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
Illuminated Alphabet by Amy Crook
It’s hard to believe it’s done, but my whole alphabet from A to Y & Z is complete. It’s amazing to see it all together, from the things I love to the ones I might’ve done a little differently. Some of the letters make me wish I was a better photographer, because the Q and ampersand are so much cooler in person than they photographed, and some of them just make me want to redo them until I can refine the idea, or go a totally different direction.
I decided to start the series on a whim, taking my new spiffy nontraditional art materials and combining them with the classic art form of calligraphy, which I’ve been doing for many years. Choosing the themes was an interesting challenge that gave the project a lot of structure, though there was also a lot of panicked googling (and how happy am I that xerography is a thing?) to try to fill in some of the letters. I learned new techniques, got new supplies, and revisited a lot of things I hadn’t done in years.
You’ll see a few more letters cropping up here and there — tomorrow’s post uses the design for my heraldic H to make a B for Baker Street, and I’ve already got one commission in the works for a different version of the J.
I got my code monkey to set up a page so you can see the whole alphabet together in clickable thumbnails, so if you’d like to go revisit your favorite letters, have at. You might even decide you need one of them to come home with you.
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: alphabet, info, words
Random Recipe: Mulled Wine
Wednesday, December 26th, 2012
Happy Boxing Day! Yesterday I made mulled wine for the third time this season, and I thought I’d share my recipe with you all, in lieu of actual content. There’s as many recipes for mulled wine as there are people who make it, so make sure to tweak this to your own preferences. And yes, I got lazy and used a photo instead of drawings, because, Christmas.
Amy’s Mulled Wine
- 1 bottle cheap, sweet red wine (I’ve used various, but Yellowtail’s Sweet Red Roo worked well this last time)
- 1 orange
- 1 apple
- 1 pear, still crisp
- about 1/3 cup turbinado sugar, which I am perpetually too lazy to measure
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 2 cloves
- 4 cardamom pods
- 5 slices candied ginger
- 2 dashes nutmeg
- 1 dash allspice
Chop the apple and pear into bite-sized pieces, and slice up the orange however you prefer, and crack the cardamom pods. Dump everything into a pot and simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, until it tastes awesome, usually about an hour to an hour and a half. Don’t let it boil. Drink hot, with some of the apple & pear floating in your cup.
Don’t throw away the leftover apple, pear & ginger, which have now become a wonderful dish of stewed, spiced fruit for later, though the orange can go and you really don’t want to accidentally bite down on the cardamom pods or cloves.
Enjoy during the long winter! 1 bottle of wine yields about 2 cups of mulled wine, so double or quadruple as needed for gatherings.
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: recipe, words
2 Comments »
Christmas Palette
Sunday, December 23rd, 2012
my holiday palette for a festive season
It seems like most of my “slice of life” posts this week have been art-oriented after all, but it’s been an art-focused sort of week (at least when it wasn’t focused on the sort of client projects that make terrible photo posts).
I wanted to paint something Christmassy to post on the day of, and this is the palette that was left when I was done with Tuesday’s (tentacle-free) art. I used my ridiculously awesome scented Christmas watercolors, so my art table smelled of pine trees as I worked, and then peppermint afterward. And of course I watched Nightmare Before Christmas while I was painting, just to get in the proper spirit.
Soon. Soon!
(And for the record, no, the paint doesn’t still smell of pine once it dries. Alas.)
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: words
Sherlock on the Light Table
Saturday, December 22nd, 2012
Sherlock on the light table getting wallpapered
I love the wallpaper from this particular wall in 221b Baker Street, ridiculous velvet flocking and all, but it’s definitely not something I’m inclined to draw freehand. I used this same method with the light table to do the wallpaper on my Baker Street Tinies: B is for Baker Street, interior, except there I used a very fine pen for the messy crosshatching. Here I used a brush pen to scribble in the basic shapes. It made sort of a cartoon parody of the original design, much like sulking Sherlock there is a cartoon parody of Benedict Cumberbatch’s iconic portrayal.
I used heart-shaped post-its to hold down the page so it wouldn’t damage the drawing or go slipping all over the place while I worked. I use the same silly hot pink post-its to put handwritten thank-you notes in all my Etsy packages for that extra bit of appreciation.
Now that the holiday madness has quieted down a bit, I’m back at it with art, so next week you’ll definitely have a few new pieces of art to look at. Plus, my Valentines will go up, so you can take a peek at this year’s new designs.
Have a great weekend!
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words, Works In Progress
Tags: wip, words
It’s beginning to look a lot like…
Friday, December 21st, 2012
Presents!
I was going to take a photo of the mulled wine we made tonight, but I got too distracted drinking it! So, instead enjoy some of the lovely wrapped presents awaiting their chance to go visit my clients (and never return, heh).
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: words
Weds Night Gaming
Thursday, December 20th, 2012
I won at Eclipse, yay!
So, if you didn’t already know I was a complete nerd, here’s another brick in the wall. Every Wednesday evening that we can manage it, my BFF and I have a quick dinner and then head over to Endgame in Oakland for their Open Boardgaming. The crowd there is largely into the sort of games most people have never heard of, but which I greatly enjoy. This isn’t Monopoly — for one thing, there’s usually a much steeper learning curve (and a bigger price tag).
We played Eclipse ($100 and well worth it if you’ve got the cash and nerd friends to support it — this is not my copy, heh) tonight with 4 players, which took about 3 hours total including the 30 minutes Jeff spent teaching us the rules at the start. We explored space, colonized planets, and kept our space empires from going bankrupt in our quest for victory points. I played black, and as you can see we started out in four different quadrants and explored towards the middle, and out to the edges. And I won! Mostly because I built 3 monoliths, yes, just like the ones you’re thinking of. They’re worth points in this game! Also, my supernova exploded, but not until the end when it didn’t matter. Whew.
I hope you’re finding time to do the stuff you love to do, with the people you adore, too!
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: nerd, words
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