Clearly I Can't Keep Track of What Day It Is

 It is 4:42pm, and I have just now realized that it is Monday, and that I was supposed to write something here today.  Oh, well. This is pretty typical behavior now, and I suspect it isn't only me who has this issue in this particular year.

So, what did I do this past week?  Well, I drew another portrait of Aziraphale, and one of Crowley, from Good Omens, because, hey, why not?  

Above is a photo of my working area -- I have a white board on which I've taped the drawing-in-progress, and it has a magnet for holding the reference photo.  The photo is from a scene set in 1601, thus the Elizabethan ruff, which was ever so much fun to draw.  The ref photo is 8x10 inches but I decided to do the drawing smaller -- it came out 5 x 6 inches, and I also altered the expression to make him less perplexed and more wistful.  Or at least, that was my intent. Regardless, I love the result -- it's my favorite so far of all the portraits I've done.

Next, I did Crowley, using one of the promotional pics, which isn't ideal, but it's the only reference I've found that shows his wings really well.  And I liked drawing that golden decorative bit of architecture and the reddish orange background a lot.

One of the most irksome tasks, when doing a drawing, is taking a photograph of it when it's done.  Because it's never done!!  Here's what happens:  I think the drawing is finished, so I take a pic of it, upload it, and pop it into Photoshop to adjust the cropping and the brightness/contrast.  And in Photoshop, it always looks different from the original, and I always notice tiny flaws.  So I go back and fix the tiny flaws, take another photo, upload it, adjust the lighting etc., and notice another flaw...repeat ad infinitum.

Here are two examples, of drawings I did earlier this month -- these are screen shots of the photo storage Trash Bin, where all of the pics I uploaded and found flaws in wound up:

Each of the photos above (except for the last two) represents a "finished" drawing that I found a flaw in, which necessitated a fix.  There are 23 of them.  Which was 23 times I took a photo, uploaded it, fixed the flaw on the drawing...yadda yadda yadda...I believe that I sometimes spend more hours on these final details which no one else would likely notice than on the original art.

The one below wasn't quite as bad -- only 20 of the pics represent failed attempts.  I had a lot of trouble with one of Aziraphale's eyebrows.  Often, fixing the flaw means erasing a line that's about an eighth of an inch long, and redrawing it slightly higher or lower.  Maybe no one else would notice, but I would!

Anyway, just thought you might enjoy seeing what a crazed perfectionist I can be at times.  

Not all of my week was devoted to Good Omens -- I went on lots of dog walks in the sunny, mid-70s weather!

Here are a few pics from one of our favorite places, Leslie Groves Park, which runs along the Columbia River.

It has a section of sandy beach, which Pippin loves.

And there is plenty of grass for them to romp around in.

I also did several Zoom sketching sessions with my Seattle friends, where we look at photos that Tina has collected of all sorts of things, and choose one to practice on.  She has photos of pretty much anything and everything.  We did these starfish:

And this French street:

And a Japanese garden:

And that was it!

I hope to post on Monday morning next time.  Until then, have a great week!