Running Out of Wall Space

 This past week's sketch-practices-via-Zoom proved challenging.  First up were these amazingly colorful cacti:

My first effort made them look more like jelly beans, and then they morphed into sweetpea blossoms, but eventually I got something moderately close:

The second pic was this foggy churchyard:

I failed to depict convincing fog, but at least I got things to look like what they are, and I'm happy with the crow, especially since the first time I drew the bird, it looked more like a pigeon.  For shame.

Of course, I had to draw more of Azriaphale and Crowley from Good Omens.  I adore the angel's bookshop, and it is definitely fun to try depicting all those books, so I was delighted when I ran across a photo I hadn't seen before, from behind-the-scenes (did not appear in the series), showing Aziraphale relaxing with a book and a glass of wine (and probably listening to his favorite classical music):

It was a poor quality photo, but I loved the pose, so I had to draw it.  I cut the scene down -- I didn't feel a strong urge to draw the whole desk or that table on the bottom right, which has a chess set on it.  What I was left with had plenty of details to draw, and I'm pretty happy with the results:

Then I decided to try a bigger challenge -- a drawing with the two characters together.  I've done this a few times but never been totally satisfied with my efforts.  Inevitably, one will look fine while the other one won't, and nothing will fix it.  There was a scene I liked from the first episode, where they dine at the Ritz and Crowley is intensely trying to convince Aziraphale to help him stop Armageddon.

The problem was not having a clip in which both characters looked the way I wanted them to -- for example, in this clip, Crowley is looking at Aziraphale, but not vice versa:

But I liked Crowley in that one -- nice, intense look.  And in this pic, I liked the way Aziraphale looked at Crowley -- but dang it, Crowley was looking away.  

There is also too much space between them, and too much stuff going on in the background.  So I did a little work in Photoshop to put the two views I liked best together and to play with a more abstract background:

It wasn't the easiest photo to work from, again not very high quality, but I had fun trying to make it work, and got a drawing I'm happy with -- well, maybe 90% happy with, but that's par for the course.  It's better than any of the other ones I've done with the two characters together, so that's progress!

I have been framing the better drawings, but now there are so many that I'm running out of wall space.  There is an entire bedroom that I'm not using (it's the guest room, sadly lacking in guests this year), and I suppose that inroads could be made there...but then, I'd rarely see the pictures then.  Oh, well.  

(And yes, I do already have one in the bathroom....)

That was it for Art.  On to the most important thing:  Dachshunds!

The good news is that Pippin is feeling fine!  After just a few days of rest and medication, he is acting completely normal.  Whew.  

I was able to take both Hounds on a walk for the first time in a while, due to their various back issues.  We got a lovely autumn day for a stroll near the river:

I'm fairly certain the Hounds had no idea how cold the water was before they waded out -- they just remember the warm water of summer.  They didn't stay in there very long!

Pippin was a bit tired out afterwards, even though I made him use the stroller for at least half the journey.  

So I'm thrilled that both dogs are feeling better, though they are not thrilled with the new diet. They both need to lose weight to stave off future back problems.  They are constantly watching me when I eat now, wanting to know why I'm not giving them part of it anymore.  

"It's for your own good" apparently does not translate into Wienerese.  

That's all for this past week!