The Texture of Faith by Amy Crook

This print uses 3 of my little etching plates, two of which have been double-inked so that there’s a primary color in the actual etching, and a secondary red on the surface of the plate. The top two plates are both found objects of a sort, the smaller one is actually part of a larger plate that I cut up and kept pieces of to use in other prints. The paper has a beautiful texture of its own, lending an extra dimension to the abstract images, and giving a rich desert for the tiny cruciform figure to wander in.

The Texture of Faith, detail, by Amy Crook

There’s a lot of meaning that could be inferred here, but this is one of those pieces that’s hard to quantify for me — I can talk about this technical aspect or that process, but the end result was something unexpected. There’s hints of stories and ideas hiding in the abstract, brought out by the smallest image at the bottom.

The Texture of Faith by Amy Crook, 15.5″x23″ intaglio and monoprint on imported Mexican bark paper, $499 with free shipping. $50 of your money will go to charity.

Friendly Card Game by Amy Crook

I feel as though this should be renamed “Myths Playing Poker,” except neither one is really a specific mythical creature. I’m thinking of doing this up as a watercolor, but we’ll see how much motivation actually occurs. I do have another watercolor to work on, though, so it’s got a chance.

I drew this the other day when I was at a cafe with a friend, it was nice to have nothing else to do, because it encouraged me to make the piece much more finished and add a lot of detail rather than just doodle up a quick sketch.

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings by Amy Crook

As part of the Customer Love challenge, I decided to go ahead and be a little more me and show off my inner fangirl some more. This piece was a two-part stone lithograph drawn by hand on two stones, which is a really interesting and odd process that I only got a chance to try out during the short time I had access to the materials.

The image on the left contains a quote from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series about his character of Death, and that’s the quote which I used to title the whole piece. On the right, we have a quote from the Joy Division song “In a Lonely Place,” which was quoted in the original comics for The Crow — the second comic series I ever collected (the first was Bill Sienkiewicz’s Stray Toasters). The image, of course, is of the main character from the comic and later movie, and has a pattern of wings overlaying the shadows, a match to the outspread wing in the first panel.

There are a lot of hidden things here about death and myth and meaning, but also about art and inspiration, and the process that artists of all sorts go through, amalgamating all the art they consume, the culture around them and the facts and trivia they learn, and putting it through the mill of their own experience. The Crow is littered with quotes from songs, The Sandman is rife with literary, historical and mythical references, and between them there is a small but coherent thread of death and flight and black wings that carry the soul away, that I’ve chosen to weave into this artwork.

The print above on the buff paper was done in an edition of 26, of which I still have 6 (with some variation between prints owing to the process). I also have a single print on heavy natural-deckle handmade watercolor paper that’s one of a kind. No more of these can ever be made — the stones were long sanded down smooth and used for other artworks.

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings, edition, 22″x15″ stone lithograph on watercolor paper, $199 $155 until Sept. 8 with free shipping. $20 of your money will go to charity.

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings, AP by Amy Crook

From the Darkness, I Hear the Beating of Mighty Wings, A/P, 22″x17″ stone lithograph on handmade watercolor paper, $299 $233 until Sept. 8 with free shipping. $30 of your money will go to charity.

Red by Amy Crook

I actually have two pieces with this same title, and I’ll try to post the other one (an oil painting) next week. I considered renaming this one, but the red is really the thing that calls to me about the piece. The red is dark and rich, and the figure is a fuzzy shadow that hides in the complex fibers. The ink of this print adhered irregularly to the handmade Thai paper, giving it a ghostly appearance.

One of the reasons I love the monoprint process so much is that it adds an element of randomness, making the art a collaboration between me and the process instead of me trying entirely to control what goes on.

Red, 22.5″x30″ monoprint and chine colle on watercolor paper, $499 $389 until Sept. 8 with free shipping. $50 of your money will go to charity.

Here’s a close-up of the figure’s face, so you can see the other colors that are hiding amongst all the red, the black and white and a barely-there glow of golden yellow.

Red, detail, by Amy Crook

Urgent Grounding by Amy Crook

One of the hardest things about art is knowing when a piece is done.

This painting started out as a quick sketch that I filled in with some messy linework in a rich forest green. I started working in the background of rich orangey gold, and then at one point I stepped back and said, you know, I think I like it just as it is. I’ve had it hanging in my living room for a while now, and I haven’t ever wanted to go back and mess with it.

Urgent Grounding, 30″x24″ oil on canvas, $899 $701 until Sept. 8 with free shipping. $90 of your money will go to charity.

Rey Magdael by Amy Crook

My good friend Rey & I shared a hotel room at a gaming con (not like that! sheesh), and as part of my half of the room expenses, he decided to be a cartoon. Art for hotel room, awesome! He was too lazy to tell me anything about what specifics he wanted, so I chose his props for him. Yes, this is one of the advantages of being someone I actually know in Real Life — surprise extras!

His iPhone is red because it’s got a Gelaskin on it — one he desperately needs for his coworkers, a reproduction of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters, and of course a Christmas present from me.

We had fun picking out the skin color for him, I made a bunch of lines on a little strip of paper and wrapped it around his arm. We were both amused that the Copic marker that matched best was called “Orientale.” It’s especially funny because their “Barely Beige” is distinctly pinker than “Baby Skin Pink,” so I rarely trust the names to be descriptive or useful. Score one for Japan, I guess!

My 37th birthday is Sept. 22 — Yay!

For many years, I not only didn’t really celebrate my birthday, but I never told anyone when it was. It took me a long time to teach myself that the people who wanted to know, wanted to celebrate with me. Now that I’m generally older and wiser, I happily publicize my birthday all over the place.

How can you celebrate with me?

This year, I wanted to share my happiness at being alive and content for another year with all of you.

Buy some art or get a free love note — I want you to be able to take my art home with you, and I’ll help one week at a time with some nifty sales. The Love Notes are free all month, though, because everyone deserves a card for my birthday — sign up for your freebie at the bottom of this page!

Buy yourself something special.

• Sept. 1-7, all of my People art is 22% off! Don’t worry, I slogged through all the posts and fixed the buttons up so you don’t have to think math. Click here to see what’s on sale!
• Sept. 8-14, all of my Abstract art is 22% off!
• Sept. 15-21, all of my Sea Creature and Monster art is 22% off!
• Sept. 22 a special day! Make me an offer — for a payment plan, a special discount, some sort of barter, or some combination, and I’ll see what I can do for you. I reserve the right to not accept all offers, but I really want you to have more art in your life, so I’ll try to work with you to make something awesome.
• Sept. 23-30, I’ll be having Art Grab Bags! This is so cool it’ll get its own post, so watch this space.

Let me send you a Love Note.

I’m also starting a cool new service called Love Notes, and for all of September I’m offering to send you a free one for my birthday! Just sign up to my mailing list below, answer the three questions I send you (hint: one of them will be “What is your name & address?”), and you’ll be good to go!

PS: If you can’t see the form, sign up here instead.

Catty by Amy Crook

This piece was once described as looking like she was wearing a black rubber catsuit, though as the bronze has aged the patina’s gotten some flecks of blue-green verdigris on it that adds an unusual texture. She’s another of my little bronze people series, so the figure is about the size of a child’s doll. I always liked the way the lines of her body combined the lush, heart-shaped derriere with long, slender limbs and a smooth, featureless face to be both sensual and faintly creepy.

The person who bought it was kind enough to send me a better photo than the ones I had, since I wanted to post the whole series and not just the ones I had left.

Catty, approx. 12″ long cast bronze, sold.

Torn by Amy Crook

This is another large monoprint that involves many layers of paper and ink. I had originally done the face as part of a larger figure, but wasn’t happy with the result, so I tore up the sheet of paper to make more interesting shapes and re-used parts of it in the top layer of this print. The red is actually all ink rather than another sheet of paper, a large printing plate covered in it. The bottom shape was layered with the torn paper under the ink, and then on top another layer of paper and ink was laid down, this time with large sheets of acetate for the medium rather than a plate.

These prints are all one of a kind, and I no longer have access to the press I did them on, so they’re not something I can make again. Each one involves a unique process of things coming together, ink and ideas, paper stock and plates, to create an individual work of art.

Torn, 22.5″x31″ monoprint and chine collé on imported handmade and watercolor paper, $499 $389 until Sept. 8 with free shipping. $50 of your money will go to charity.

Holly Jackson by Amy Crook

Since it’s Sunday, I’ll repost another older cartoon that never made it up here on Antemortem — Holly Jackson and Sir Didymus of Cottage Copy! Holly wanted to show her mighty pen and scroll, and of course the Cottage Copy canine needed to put in his appearance.

He made a second appearance, along with another version of Holly, on the painting I did that eventually became the header for the Cottage Copy website:

Cottage Copy by Amy Crook

Monster in Daisies by Amy Crook

I drew this little guy because I wanted to remind myself that my internal voices, what Havi Brooks calls Monsters, just want to take care of me. And that sometimes, those monsters are a lot smaller than their voices sound. This miniature monster just wants to be friends, and make sure we can all just get along. He’s even got flowers!

Monster in Daisies, 5″x7″ copic markers on watercolor paper. Buy Him on a Card at Etsy!

Heidi Dobbs by Amy Crook

Friday brings us one more new cartoon, the lovely Heidi Dobbs! We had fun with color on her cartoon in a different way than Linda’s — we made her clothes a quiet black but she had me give her the fiery hair she wishes she could have! We also took her dog’s favorite snuggly chair and made it a nice robin’s egg blue, a color that wouldn’t stand up to the dog in real life, but makes a wonderful backdrop to her awesome locks in her cartoon.

Thanks for coming along on my week of cartoons! This weekend I’ll post a few people that aren’t new, but haven’t been up on this site before.

Remember, if you want to be a Cartoon, it’s just $79! My list of cartoons-to-be is filling up wonderfully, and I’m always excited to get a new cartoon client in the queue.

Skaja Wills, final, by Amy Crook

Ever wondered what it’s like to become a cartoon? Skaja Wills was kind enough to let me share the process with you.

When we first talked about her cartoon, she wasn’t sure what she wanted — she was drawn to the fairy wings, but also liked the stature on the weeble people, so what we ended up going with was something that was halfway between. She sent me a photo of herself in her favorite shirt, and we agreed on a simple pose with blue jeans, and of course the fairy wings.

First I sent her a sketch, courtesy of my iPhone camera:

Skaja Wills, sketch 1, by Amy Crook

She was pleased with everything except the shoes, which I’d chosen arbitrarily because they were easy to draw. She sent me a link to her favorite pair of sandals, and voila:

Skaja Wills, sketch 2, by Amy Crook

This image is a bit clearer, too, since I actually scanned it properly. After that we talked about a prop, since her right hand was just sitting there empty, so I added a Copic marker in the final sketch:

Skaja Wills, sketch 3, by Amy Crook

Also done with the scanner, and I darkened up the lines this time so she’d get a feel for how it would look inked. Which was the next step! I always make a high-resolution scan of the inks just in case the client has a use for the black-and-white version, or in the tragic event that I totally screw up the original (I can print out new “inks” and color from there). So far that hasn’t happened, knock on wood!

Skaja Wills, inked, by Amy Crook

In this case, since I inked the wings with grey rather than black, I even had to scan the image in greyscale.

Next we revisited the colors — I asked about skin and eyes, hair and clothes and of course the wings. Then I got out my own Copic markers, took a deep breath, and started coloring. The wings were the hardest, the pink fade wanted to bleed and warp the paper a little, and then the scanner was determined not to pick up the pale blue veins running through them.

Skaja Wills, final, by Amy Crook

Once it was all done, I scanned it and sent her a set of files in formats suitable for both web and print applications. Then the original got carefully slipped into a thank-you card and sent off via US Post, winging its way to her! I use a 5″x7″ watercolor paper that’s suitable for framing, though I’m not always that great about leaving space at the paper’s edges for the frame, heh.

Thinking you might want one of your own? You, too, can Be a Cartoon for only $79!