Lazar (but Manga).

Lazar‘s favourite snack 🧛‍♂️

(Ana) ~ a daydream based on Ch 18 and 19 of The Visitor (AO3) - drawn in Procreate ✍️

✍️ Tonight I‘ve been working on some digital drawing techniques and process learned from the @liliyth tutorials I did yesterday as well as trying out some of her brushes in Procreate. I‘m not sure the finished result looks like Melissa in the end, but I was trying to capture the coy mood of the reference (swipe left and please let me know if you know who to credit for it - I found it on Pinterest and now can‘t find the original source 😬). The brushes are ace and I am loving experimenting with liliyth‘s process and style. BIG fan of hers.

Ooh, I like that angle. He would indeed have supreme self control. I tried to write some more. But he turned into MDCM again. (That man/creature/fictional-unattainable-wishlist-setter has a lot to answer for). I’ll try again. Or maybe just do two alternatives because who needs sleep anyway? 🧛❤️🩸

Mood: Lazaar / languor

Refusing to do his vampire thing. And driving Ana to distraction. Imaginary, inexpert edits on an Abigail theme.

Wrote a little bit to go with these on AO3. It waffles. It’s undercooked or overcooked. A bit much or not enough. Can’t really decide. But - happily - it’s just for fun.

Edits above using Procreate ✍️

📷 Beautiful original photos (below) by Iain McKell, Phil Fisk and Joe Gillespie. Dress is from Reformation. 📷

Photo collage/edit (see previous post)

“He drew her towards him, holding her so tightly not even a blade of grass could get in between. She really was exceptionally gorgeous, fragrant and appetising almost beyond belief.”

~ Jussi Adler-Olsen, Guilt (Department Q Book 4, translated by Martin Aitkin)

These are actual words in the book about the Carl and Mona/Rachel dance. And it’s not the only time Carl thinks about how good she smells. Just saying. For anyone who needed to know. 😂

Abigail Epilogue (continued… still!)

A very quick bit of imaginary Joey and Lazaar photo faffing fun, as I continue to daydream about an epilogue to Abigail 2024.

Below are the shots I used (MG by Phil Fisk which I found on the Guardian website, MB for Harper’s Bazaar/Clinique and a stock photo from dreamstime). I messed around with and added to them on Procreate. Not very well but you get the idea, I hope. Just for fun, as usual.

The world may be in shambles but at least I’m getting letters from my good friend Jonathan Harker

Portrait Practice - Work in progress (MG, obvs)

My summer goal is to try drawing portraits. Obviously, I’m also using this as an excuse important opportunity to stare at Matthew Goode.

I always hated drawing portraits but I love looking at them. I’d get so frustrated and usually ended up putting them in the bin or ruining the paper with rubbing out. Haven’t even tried one for many years. BUT drawing digitally has massively reduced my frustration levels as it’s so easy to make alterations, so 🤞 I can stick with this.

I’m finding two particular resources useful this week: Jake Spicer’s article in Artist and Illustrator Magazine (September issue), as well as his Insta feed, and ‘Portraits with Procreate’ by Melissa de Nobrega (which I bought with a gift voucher from my birthday 🎁).

I’d never really thought about tonal shapes before, so this is what I’m practising this week. Here are some progress shots (using layers on Procreate):

We’ve been joking about yellow filters 😂 but I actually might change the yellow. Not sure about it. Although it rocks with the mauves and dull pinks.

I used the grid method for the outlines and a tiny bit of tracing for the tricky parts. This is obviously cheating but my spatial awareness is shocking and I’m just having fun, so I’m cool with that.

I don’t want it to be in a realistic style (thankfully 😂) but I struggle with letting go and adopting a different style, even when drawing plants or animals. I think I’m a copier rather than a creative spirit when it comes to drawing. So we’ll see. I love Jake Spicer’s style. The benefit of Procreate is I’ll be able to experiment…

… and continue to stare at MG as Matthew Roydon (one of my favourite of his incarnations) 😍

⬆️ Photo-collage-fan-faffery / the wanderings of my mind as I read the Department Q books

Windswept scenario - Department Q

Above is another (imaginary) candid snap of ‘The Carl and Rachel dance’. It’s early on in the dance - book 2 ish - at the point when the screenwriters have forced them together on the beach (somehow?!) and there’s such a vibe: he’s definitely interested but she still needs a lot of convincing. It’s a bright day but breezy and stickily, saltily damp; the sea spray is everywhere and the fresh air is electric between them. They’re asked to pose for a photo (who knows why?!) and Carl leaps at the opportunity to put his arm around her. It’s a touch - a contact - that’s not happened before. The warmth of him makes her stomach churn deliciously and she dips her gaze and smiles at the realisation. The camera catches the moment. Then the contact is broken. They look coyly - sideways and both suppressing smirks - at each other before continuing along the beach with the rest of the group.

[Cut to some dark, harrowing kidnap scenes - this is a thriller after all].

—

In the books, Adler-Olsen gives only the most tantalising glimpses of ‘The Dance’ between these two. Hence my ramblings 😂 I wonder how the dynamic will pan out in the show. Towards the end of Department Q Book 1 in Carl’s internal monologue, he confesses to being ‘crazy’ about her, despite her wearing a wedding ring (which is later removed). Adler-Olsen leaves us to guess what changes her mind eventually. But if Carl Mørck looks like Matthew Goode it’s not that much of a mystery, is it? 😂🫠

📷 Original pics from @asgoodeasgold (I’m so envious that these are actually your pictures I could cry) and Wikipedia; faffed around with, inexpertly, by me 📷

Hurry up, Netflix. Please give us a peek of him!

Procreate sketch ✏️ based on fabulous 📷 shared on facebook by David A Calder - Department Q shoot on Portobello Beach

Same, Drac. Same.

Saw this (during the current re-run) and cannot stop thinking about it. So very, very, very funny.

And, also, Andrew Scott’s arms…

📷 screenshots of opening scenes from NT film extract on YouTube 📷