Drawing Things That Aren't Entirely There

 This was the challenge I gave myself this past week:  draw a portrait of Aziraphale while he's "discorporated".  What does that mean?  Well, Aziraphale is an angel, dwelling on Earth in a "corporation", which is a body that looks and acts as a human body would, more or less (angels are asexual, and don't need to eat or sleep, though he rather enjoys good meals anyway).  If something harms this body, it might "discorporate", sending the angel back to Heaven for a new one.  Fun notion.

Anyway, in the Good Omens series, Aziraphale does, in fact, get accidentally discorporated, and while in this state, he tries to manifest his spirit to his friend Crowley on Earth, with his usual human appearance.  But it's difficult to keep it looking solid.  He finds Crowley in a bar, and while speaking to him, bits of the window and the street beyond keep breaking through Aziraphale's form.  He is also fairly washed out, thusly:

I naturally thought this would be a fun colored pencil drawing challenge.  And it was!  I chose a moment when Crowley tells the poor angel that his beloved bookshop has burned down:

He's devastated by that news.  I didn't want an overall washed-out drawing, so I wound up toning down everything except his key facial features, so that his sad expression would stand out.  Basically, I used colors with values one to two shades paler than I would normally use for a portrait, and added a lot of white over the top in all the faded-out areas.  Only after drawing the whole piece did I then go back and erase out the bits of window showing through him.  It's not entirely what I was aiming for, but it's close.

Next, I drew another portrait of Crowley, one that had only a minor challenge--in this shot, his dark hair sort of disappears into the dark background.  He's in his car, driving away from the burned bookshop, believing he's lost Aziraphale.  So I guess I did matching portraits of each character looking sad.  

There are issues with both portraits, and I will likely try doing them each again at some point.

In other news, poor Truman has had a spinal disk issue arise--his rear legs were suddenly wobbly this past Thursday.  Examination showed some herniation, so he is on strict bed rest and anti-inflammatory/pain meds for the next 1-3 weeks.  Hopefully this will improve matters, because if things worsen, he'll probably need surgery, and the only place that does this is a 3-hour drive away.  

Sometimes Pippin keeps Tru company in his pen, but most of the time Truman has to sit in there by himself.  Poor little hound.  Please set happy healing thoughts his way!

That's it for this week.  Stay safe out there, everyone!