Morckin’ About Is The Only Thing To Do On Sundays. 📷 References From Netflix And @pleasereadmeok

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. 📷

Dear Funko Pop,

Please will you make us a Lazaar figure (Abigail 2024) for Halloween? Here’s a mockup using Seamus Finnigan #65. Go on… it would be fun!

Thank you 🙏 🎃,

A big fan

X

PS I have no idea how you actually spell his name so you’ll have to work that out. 🤨

⬆️ (my bedside table/nightstand goals) 📷 original edit from @asgoodeasgold 📷

Visit from a vampire scribbles - 🧛✏️🖤 using Procreate.

And I’ve never loved a vampire before… so that’s a coincidence. 🤔🫠

Love this post ❤️

"I have never played a vampire before."

Matthew goes on talking about Dracula, the most famous vamp.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Fast forward a few years, Matthew has portrayed not one but two vampires, one of which is the iconic Count Dracula in Abigail! Never say never 😁

📷 My edits from Sky Adow featurette "All the best of Matthew Goode and Matthew Clairmont in one place", A Discovery of Witches (2018) s1, and Abigail (2024)

📷 Inept photo editing fun 📷 with my faves 📷🖤🧛‍♂️🎶❤️

⬆️ Fan Photo Collage using extract from A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and stills from the TV Show

My favourite book in the whole world. Ever.

I was out and about yesterday and found a well-loved copy of ‘A Discovery of Witches’ in the local train station book swap.

⬆️ A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (p175)

Part of me wanted to leave it for someone else to discover the absolute magic (literal and figurative) of it; part of me was delighted with the connective sign from the universe and part of me grabbed it with both hands as I’ve lent my copy out and am really missing it. I delved into it straight away and got wonderfully lost for the entire train journey.

To celebrate, I edited together a little extract (p175), just for fun, which tries to capture the delectable sensory overload to be found in the writing and the show itself. Can’t really put into words how much I love it.

Quick tonal study of MG (tried very hard to stick to 2.5hr time limit over two days). He’s such an obliging subject with all those beautiful lines and angles 😍 and perfect for practising with 🩶🖤🤍 I love the expression in the reference photo and the fact it’s in profile. I tried to capture his understated-but-OMG-smile and butterfly-inducing vibe, whilst trying very hard not to envy the person he’s looking at like that.

In terms of my learning journey, I started by trying to identify the different values in the reference (pop art style), played with some filters, then had a whale of a time with the smudging tool and then, for the detail, I tried to use techniques I’d read about in Laura H. Rubin’s brilliant book ‘Of Strokes and Shades’, as well as experimented with some of her texture brushes. Tried hard not to overfaff with it, as that way madness lies… but it’s difficult to walk away when there are lots of bits that need work. Ah well, perfect excuse to find my next piece of inspiration!

📷 Original edit I used as a reference is posted above (which I found on the feed of the legendary @pleasereadmeok - I think?! if I can add further details, please let me know as now I can’t find the original link and can’t read the print in my screenshot - sorry). 📷

⬆️ 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 📷

CYMB Lazar. Just ‘cos.

Used the Jake Spicer Scrawlrbox 115 and this reference image from Downton Abbey.

Yep, I’m still daydreaming about Lazaar. And having fun drawing him on Procreate. Tried the brilliant tutorial by Laura Rubin, in her book, and some of her fab skin brushes. I ended up overworking it (as usual 🙄) and doesn’t massively look like him BUT I was trying to capture the mood and that look.

Talking of that look,

…here’s a little photo edit of who he’s looking at (in my mind anyway 😜):

And here’s one of the beautiful original edits by @asgoodeasgold that I used as a reference 😍:

And here’s a rambling chapter which features that look:

Overcooked and nonsensical, as usual, but it’s just for fun so who cares?! 🧛❤️