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!

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.

It's Harry the Rabbit!

 I did two more portraits this week.  The first was just a variation on an earlier one I did of Crowley in his car after he believes that Aziraphale was lost in the bookshop fire.  This is the first version I did, and it felt too exaggerated and/or harsh-looking.

So I did a slightly different version that I think is an improvement.  His face has a darker, smudgy appearance because of the ash from the fire, which is also on his jacket, and his hair has been dampened by water from a fire hose.  I like the less extreme expression better here.

The second portrait was Aziraphale -- I like to alternate between the two.  This time I got the challenge of drawing a totally white bunny -- in this scene, he is performing a magic act, and produces Harry the Rabbit from a top hat (not in view).

Other challenges included his expression -- he is desperately hoping the kids he's performing for will like this trick (they've been very bored by his act), and he's smiling in a sort of  "PLEASE like this" manner.  And he's drawn a silly mustache on.  It's the only time he wears black in the series, which does help set off the rabbit nicely.

AND, I got to draw hands -- yay.  

I used a light, warm gray to define the bunny, which worked well.  The face got overworked in some areas, and I tried to rescue it as best I could, not entirely successfully.  Overall I'm okay with it, and I learned more about What Not To Do with colored pencils!

As with the above drawing of Crowley, if I get bored enough, I may try to do this one a second time to get it closer to my high standards.  

In other news, Truman is mostly recovered from his spinal disk issue!  He can walk and run just fine, and only has a little trouble with going up stairs.  Here is a video from a few days ago -- he can play with Pippin again, and that makes Pip very happy indeed.

That's all for this past week.  Stay safe out there!

In Which I Try Soft Pastels

 YouTube can be dangerous to my pocketbook.  I watched a few colored pencil tutorials there a while back, and one suggested combining soft pastels -- specifically a brand called "PanPastels" -- with the pencils.  The idea was to use the pastels to cover larger areas, and for smoothness.  So of course I had to check them out.

I was delighted to find a portrait set to test out, and it came with application tools.  Those things to the right are sponges, and you slide one of the smallest ones onto that blue implement.  Then you dip the applicator in the pastel color and brush it onto your surface. 

You can add colored pencil on top of the pastel, and put more pastel on top of the pencil and build layers as needed.   Blending is a bit labor intensive, because the sponges quickly get dirty and you're not supposed to put a dirty one back into the color again.  They did not clean easily with water, as the product info claimed, either.  I wound up using one tool for lighter tones and another for darker tones, and just tried not to mix them up.

For this portrait of Crowley, I used three pastel colors for his face and two for the hair and background.  I added colored pencil to the background and went back over it with more pastel.  I used pencils for the details of the eyes, nose, and mouth.

The overall effect was more painterly, with a smoother texture.  I like the result, but the process was very messy, and now all of the sponges are dirty and won't come clean.  Most vexing!  I may try them again, or they may wind up in the closet -- we shall see.

For our two weekly Zoom sketch drawing sessions, we chose photos of some interesting buildings in Europe -- no idea where or even what they are, but hey, they had fun challenges.

Arches are hard to get right, but I got this one fairly well, I think.  For the one below, it was getting the perspective lines right, and they got a little wonky here and there.   I spent most of my time drawing the stones of the walkway -- I found drawing all those ovals sort of mesmerizing.  

I do enjoy the Zoom sketch sessions because I never know what we're going to pick to draw, and it gets me away from Yet Another Crowley or Aziraphale portrait!

Finally, Truman is much better after ten days of restricted movement and medications, and his back legs are about 90% normal now.  The next challenge is to get his weight down, which definitely contributed to his recent spinal disk issue.

Here he is celebrating his recovery:

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!

Step by Step

 This past week, when I drew YET ANOTHER Crowley portrait, I decided to take more photos of the process--just because I could.  So if "step by step" pics of work in progress is something you find utterly fascinating, do read on.  If not, skip to the end where there are cute dachshund photos--which are always the best part of a blog post, right?  

Right.

The reference photo I chose comes from a scene where Crowley is wondering where he can go to escape the coming Armageddon -- he has taken photos from a book of astronomy and is thinking about zipping off to Alpha Centauri or somewhere equally exciting. The pages float around him as he ponders his dire fate.

Here he is looking at a nebula -- when Crowley was an angel, he helped create the stars, and he says here, "I helped build that one." I wanted the nebula in the drawing, but he never faces the screen while looking at it.  Drat.

This is the best shot I could find of him looking forward, so I went with it, and I'd just switch out the photo near his head with the nebula one.  

Here is my setup on my whiteboard drawing surface.  A sheet of Strathmore 400 Series Bristol Vellum taped down, and the reference photo held with a magnet.  The ruler is used to do some basic measuring of head height and width, and location of the main facial features, as this drawing will be done on a 1:1 scale.  (When making a drawing larger or smaller than the photo, a grid system is usually best.)

Here is the pencil sketch with the major planes and features blocked in:

Next, I map out the darkest areas using Burnt Umber, refining the features as I go along:

Next, I map out the medium and light tones.  The Faber-Castell colored pencil colors I use for skin tones are Beige Red (lightest areas) and Cinnamon (medium).

Then I add solvent to smooth everything out -- I used to use Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits, which are toxic and need ventilation, and careful handling, but during the Big Smoke from the wildfires, when I couldn't open any windows, I switched to baby oil, which gives a similar result, though it is non-archival.

At this point, the portrait doesn't look that great, but there's a ways to go.  Detailing comes next -- the eyes, nose, and mouth need a lot of fine lines and subtle shading of skin tones.  You can draw right on top of colored pencils that have been blended with solvent -- it dries almost instantly, and the surface is smoother, but Strathmore is a great, highly durable paper that can take multiple layers such as this.

Crowley's eyes are golden-yellow with a black snake-like slit.  I use two yellows -- Cadmium Yellow and the slightly darker Naples Yellow for his eyes.  Lips are usually done with Medium Flesh (light areas) and Pompeian Red (darker).  After working on the details, I start working on deepening the shadows with Nougat (medium shadows) and Walnut Brown (darker areas).

Having drawn a lot of Crowley portraits by now, I've got his hair pretty much down.  First, I cover the entire hair with Burnt Umber, using light pressure:

Then I use stronger pressure to add highlighted areas with Light Yellow Ochre, and quite strong pressure to put Burnt Sienna over the whole hair.

When I add solvent to it, magic happens!

Okay, that's enough of the step-by-step stuff.  Hope you enjoyed it.  I didn't take step-by-step pics of the background, so you're off the hook there.  The walls were simple (three shades of gray plus a light ochre).  There's a statue in the far back which I left indistinct so as not to distract from the foreground. The nebula was challenging -- I used a lot of different blues and some ivory, cream, and a yellow-orange, using multiple layers of color, solvent, more color, and burnishing.  His clothes are always easy -- lots of dark gray and black.

I'm pretty happy with the result:

Now for the puppy pics!  Hoorah!

Pippin Pup turned three years old on October 1, when I snapped this early morning shot:

He is a very sweet dog.  Here he is as a puppy, just a few months old, letting Truman know that his world has forever changed:

As you can see from this photo from a year later, Truman got used to the little guy:

Such sweet boys.

So that was the week that was, and I imagine the coming week will be much the same.

Have a good one, and stay safe out there!