Dog Day Afternoons

 First, the most important thing from last week:

Thursday, April 15 was TRUMAN'S NINTH BIRTHDAY!!!  Whee!  Hoorah!  Here is Pippin giving Truman a greeting on his birthday:

And here is Truman a few seconds later, realizing that Pippin is too close to his favorite toy.

Pippin made a valiant effort to take it away...

...but the birthday Hound prevailed!

Truman got a bit of chicken for his birthday, which is his favorite treat.  And he got a walk, although I'm not entirely sure if he really enjoys walks all that much.  Still, it was  a good day all in all.

The days, in fact, have been warm and sunny -- 70s and even into the 80s already.  Yikes.  The Hounds spend a lot of time lounging in the yard.  

As the temps get hotter throughout the afternoon, they seek out the shade.  However, there are no trees, so the shade is rather hard to find:

Pippin has mastered the art of maximizing his shade acquisition via the utility pole.

Truman, meanwhile, is trying to learn his technique, and while not quite as adept, is mostly getting it down:

Perhaps I ought to plant a tree.

Okay, on to the art...we had our two usual Zoom sketching sessions.  The first was a windmill:

And the second was a Japanese garden path with way too many trees:

My favorite watercolor piece from last week wasn't done during these sessions -- it was just an extra bit of fun.  My friend Mary has a metal garden goat named Noel who is quite charming.  I had used a pic of Noel to practice digital art once, and later Mary posted another photo and wondered if perhaps a second portrait might be fun--well, it was indeed.  

This time I used watercolor.  The photo showed him hiding partly behind a tree, but even though I didn't have to paint the entire goat, it was still a challenge, which I enjoyed immensely.

As for the oil painting efforts...astute readers may recall that last week I said it was Crowley's turn for an oil portrait, and to stay tuned to see how that went.  

Well, it didn't.  Not because of any oil painting fiasco -- I just simply never got round to it, because I wanted to take a break first with some colored pencil portraits instead, and ran out of time.  That's my excuse, at least, and I'm sticking to it.

So this is what I've got so far for the colored pencil Crowley -- this is from the final scene where he and Aziraphale are toasting their successful derailing of Armageddon ("To the world!").

It's not done yet -- there are some value fixes needed here and there, and it needs a background.  The reference photo has a busy background (they are dining at the Ritz), and the colors are quite bland:

So I am thinking of doing just a solid background color -- probably a sage green.  There is a photo of Aziraphale from this same scene which I also want to do:

I think a sage green would work well as a background for both of them. 

After I finish both of those, then I plan to return to the oil painting projects. Honest.  

That's all for now!

Except for the following alert to anyone who gets this blog via email subscription:

EMAIL SUBSCRIBER ALERT!  The blog hosting platform plans to REMOVE the email subscription service this JULY.  There is no alternative method for subscribing.  Sorry.  You'll have to bookmark the blog (mizmak.blogspot.com) and remember to check it once a week (I normally post on Mondays.)