Art, Dogs, Rinse, Repeat

 Guess what I did last week?

If you guessed "went on a zipline tour of the Amazon cloud forest", you would be wrong.

If you thought perhaps I traversed the Grand Canyon via mule train, that would also be incorrect.

Rode a bicycle across the U.S.?  Climbed Kangchenjunga?  Surfed the Oahu pipeline?

Nope.  Nein.  Nyet.

If you guessed "drew more Good Omens and sketched via Zoom with friends in Seattle and took care of dachshunds", though, you get a gold star.

The routine is still the routine as we enter another month of Not Doing Anything That Involves Encountering Other People in Person.  First, I did the virtual sketch group meetings, and drew stuff that wasn't Good Omens, such as these wacky pumpkins:

And these Autumn leaves:

And my favorite, this little tree frog with the big black eye:

Next, of course, I drew more Good Omens!  Yay!

When I first started drawing the characters, I thought this portrait of Aziraphale in colored pencil that I did back in May was pretty good, considering that I hadn't drawn people in ages and ages:

Now, having drawn these characters over and over for six months, and having learned how to use colored pencils better, I decided to do this same picture again, and I think it's quite improved:

For one thing, I've learned how to use the magical solvent to smooth things out.  You can see this very well in the second portrait I did last week of Crowley at Warlock's birthday party--the only time he ever wears white.  Here is my drawing board with the reference photo (that white square in the bottom right is a magnet):

Here's a close-up of what colored pencil looks like right before I add the baby oil solvent:

And here it is afterwards (plus a bit more of the suit done).  The difference is amazing:

                                           

The trick is to know what those colors are going to do once the solvent is added, and that's the fun part of learning this technique.  

Here is the finished piece:

And last but hardly least, there were dachshunds to deal with...remember how Truman had spinal disk issues recently and had to be penned up?  Well, he's fine now--but Pippin went and decided to have the exact same thing!

His symptoms were not as severe as Truman's, but the vet still ordered bed rest and pain meds, and that's been ever so much fun.  He is acting like his normal self already, and has been allowed on the sofa for naps.

That pen certainly has come in handy.  Sigh.

So that was my thrilling, exciting, sensational week!

I trust yours was just as delightful.