Portrait Practice - Work In Progress (MG, Obvs)

Can’t get enough of the Department Q books. Normally this genre isn’t my thing (too much of a scaredy cat) but the link with MG was too tempting and now I’m hooked. Difficult, awful subject matter but Carl Mørck is such a comedic and compelling character that I can’t help but read on. Great writing and translating, in my opinion.

I’m currently on Book 3. Made myself a silly bookmark; I know MG’s photo isn’t right AT ALL (from the glimpses we’ve had of filming) but hopefully there’ll soon be some promos from the show and I can make a better one🤞

📷 photos (edited into a montage) from Netflix, The Times and BBC Drama

Daddy’s girl 🧛🧛‍♀️

Abigail fan art drawn in Procreate using BigPearLiu’s brushes ❤️

https://archiveofourown.org/works/58121329/chapters/162821269#workskin

Soundtrack:

⬆️ 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 📷

Saturdays are for sketching. Sketching Matthew Goode, to be precise. My spatial awareness is worse than useless so I used a photo to get the outlines/proportions [see below] and then messed about with filling in using various brushes in ProCreate. Cheating really. Got carried away adding more hair because @asgoodeasgold has officially declared this to be Windswept Weekend with her epic, rugged reel from this morning. Also because I’m reading Department Q (have I mentioned that already?!) and am Carl Mørck obsessed 😂

The sketches aren’t finished - set myself a one hour time limit. I always over-faff sketching and so I’m trying to practise getting the impression of something/someone and then moving on before ruining it.

📷 Original photo from Hackett SS24 campaign as posted by @asgoodeasgold on Instagram 📷

Daddy Cool - A work in progress 🧛🧛‍♀️ (to go with Chapter 26 of The Visitor on AO3) using new brushes for Procreate from BigPearLiu. Love ‘em!

Carl’s trying (and failing) to enjoy a cup of tea in a greasy spoon on the beachfront. Who’s sitting opposite him, I wonder… 🤔

📷 Photo faffing (imperfect and just for DQ fun) - original photo of MG by Uli Weber for Style Italia and of the greasy spoon from whynow.co.uk blog 📷

🧛❤️

"Lazar is the true big bad of Abigail"

This made me very happy. Matthew does a 2-minute cameo as daddy vamp Lazar and his portrayal is so iconic he is recognised as one of the scariest on-screen vampires. Way to go Goodey!

So proud 🥹🥹

Collider

The 10 Scariest Movie Vampires, Ranked

From Nosferatu's Count Orlok to The Lost Boys' David, these are cinema's scariest and most unnerving vampires who are out for blood.

I just can’t get you out of my head.

Kristof Lazaar.

(Boy, your lovin’ is all I think about.)

—————————————

🧛🖤🥀 Lazaar and Joey photo faffing 🥀❤️🧛‍♀️

📷 using Procreate to edit screenshots from the film Abigail for MG and photo of MB by Luis de La Luz; rose stickers from PicCollage 📷

Here is the version Joey keeps in her scrapbook (and yes of course she keeps a scrapbook):

And this one (below) ended up looking like some creepy/weird/ironic/macabre couple’s photoshoot, so I’m including it for amusement purposes 😂 Lazaar should be holding a rose or something. Maybe I’ll do that later. Maybe they’ll get it framed… in my mind 🖼️.

⬆️ and some roses, dying obligingly on my table right now 🥀😅

⬆️ imaginary scenario fan photo faffery; photo edits using Procreate

Digestif?

This (imaginary photo edit) is how I’d like to see the epilogue to Abigail go. In case anyone else would too.

Crikey bobs, Melissa Barrera is beautiful 😍

📷 photos from screenshots and Harper’s Bazaar/Clinique 📷 edited and faffed with using Procreate. Just for fun 🎡

Filter fun:

💛💛💛💛💛🫠

Oh my.

I haven’t (yet) seen Stoker so I wasn’t aware of ‘The Mustard Effect’.

I am now.

Thank you 🫠

💛🩶🖤 Lazaar and Joey 4EVA (in my mind at least) 🖤🩶💛

Inspired by some of the amazing Good Omens fan art out there, I experimented with a different style and a new (MaxPacks) brush set in Procreate. This sketch is intended to capture loving a vampire - not knowing if he’s going to bite you or kiss you… and feeling happy either way 😜 Still not over Lazaar and Joey, evidently 😂

Added some yellow options especially for @asgoodeasgold because she LOVES a yellow filter 😜😬🙃

📷 References used: screenshot edit by @asgoodeasgold (below) and photo on Melissa Barrera’s instagram 📷