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Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!

400-someodd years ago our favorite bloody, brilliant Bill was born. Let's celebrate... with a bracket.

Yes, it's been done before; no, we don't care. Propaganda encouraged. Fight dirty if you have to. There will be a loser's bracket as well, but be warned - some of these choices are tough!

Speaking of...

(summaries from Shakespeare.org.uk)

Hamlet: Hamlet sees his dead dad's ghost, pretends to go crazy with revenge, actually goes crazy with revenge (debatable), and everyone dies.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: People get lost in the woods. Puck manipulates their romantic affections and (in one case) anatomical head-shape. They put on a play.

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Shakes-Tourney, Round 1

(summaries from shakespeare.org.uk; further summaries and propaganda encouraged)

Henry IV, Part I: King Henry IV fights off a growing rebellion while his son drinks and robs people; his son redeems himself.

Richard III: Richard wants to become King no matter who he has to kill to get there; he kills everyone who stands in his way; spooky ghosts appear; Richard is killed.

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Shakes-Tourney, Round 1

(summaries from shakespeare.org.uk; further summaries and propaganda encouraged)

Merry Wives of Windsor: Falstaff tries to pursue two married women; the women are smart; they put him in a river, dress him as a woman, and bring him to a haunted forest; everyone is happy.

Richard II: Richard wastes money, steals land, and kills political rivals; people are angry and rebel; Henry becomes king.; he kills political rivals.

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Give me shelter.

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1940s Ineffable Husbands, inspired by the Casablanca poster, as well as the light and airbrushing on Abram Games' WW2 posters, particularly the famous ATS one.

It's been such a long time since I pushed myself to do a full colour, textured illustration and I think a Good Omens one was definitely overdue.

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For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings;

How some have been deposed; some slain in war,

Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;

Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;

All murder'd: for within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king

Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,

Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,

Allowing him a breath, a little scene,

To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,

Infusing him with self and vain conceit,

As if this flesh which walls about our life,

Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus

Comes at the last and with a little pin

Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!

A very interesting private commission I did recently. David’s Richard II in the style of the Westminster Abbey portrait of Richard II (mixed with a little bit of Gustav Klimt for the face…)

‘See, see, King Richard doth himself appear

As doth the blushing discontented sun

From out the fiery portal of the east

When he perceives the envious clouds are bent

To dim his glory and to stain the track

Of his bright passage to the occident.’

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This is absolutely incredible 😍

Aziraphale with some blue irises, in the style of the coloured chalk portraits of Frederick Sandys.

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@period-dramallama I had to...

(x) original post

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Only in times of war.

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Beautiful 😍

Starry night

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I want to see a full Aziraphale sketchbook

He may have a bit of a crush 😇

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I have always wondered why this episode was called A Companion to Owls and this is 👌

I'm seeing some confusion out and about over the title A Companion to Owls (generally along the lines of 'what have owls got to do with it???'), so I'd like to offer my interpretation (with a general disclaimer that the Bible and particularly the Old Testament are damn complicated and I'm not able to address every nuance in a fandom tumblr post, okay? Okay):

It's a phrase taken from the Book of Job. Here's the quote in full (King James version):

When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. --(Job 30:29)

Job is describing the depths of his grief, but also, with that last line, his position in the web of providence.

Throughout the Old Testament, owls are a recurring symbol of spiritual devastation. Deuteronomy 4:17 - Isaiah 34:11 - Psalm 102: 3 - Jeremiah 50: 39...just to name a few (there's more). The general shape of the metaphor is this: owls are solitary, night-stalking creatures, that let out either mournful cries or terrible shrieks, that inhabit the desolate places of the world...and (this is important) they are unclean.

They represent a despair that is to be shunned, not pitied, because their condition is self-inflicted. You defied God (so the owl signifies), and your punishment is...separation. From God, from others, from the world itself. To call and call and never, ever receive an answer.

Your punishment is terrible, tormenting loneliness.

(and that exact phrase, "tormenting loneliness," doesn't come from me...I'm pulling it from actual debate/academia on this exact topic. The owls, and what they are an omen for. Oof.)

To call yourself a 'companion to owls,' then, is to count yourself alongside perhaps the most tragic of the damned --not the ones who defy God out of wickedness or ignorance, and in exile take up diabolical ends readily enough...but the ones who know enough to mourn what they have lost.

So, that's how the title relates to Job: directly. Of course, all that is just context. The titular "companion to owls," in this case, isn't Job at all.

Because this story is about Aziraphale.

The thing is that Job never actually defied God at all, but Aziraphale does, and he does so fully believing that he will fall.

He does so fully believing that he's giving in to a temptation.

He's wrong about that, but still...he's realized something terrifying. Which is that doing God's will and doing what's right are sometimes mutually exclusive. Even more terrifying: it turns out that, given the choice between the two...he chooses what's right.

And he's seemingly the only angel who does. He's seemingly the only angel who can even see what's wrong.

Fallen or not, that's the kind of knowledge that...separates you.

(Whoooo-eeeeee, tormenting loneliness!!!)

Aziraphale is the companion.

...I don't think I need to wax poetic about Aziraphale's loneliness and grappling with devotion --I think we all, like, get it, and other people have likely said it better anyway. So, one last thing before I stop rambling:

Check out Crowley's glasses.

(screenshots from @seedsofwinter)

Crowley is the owl.

Crowley is the goddamn owl.

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This relationship dynamic is everything.

~ Why would any sensible creature crave an eternity of this?

~ You could find out.

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I've felt a bit under the weather the past couple of days so I drew this today instead of doing the work I needed to do... but I think it might be the cutest thing I've ever drawn 😂

And it was good practice for trying to bring more expression and character into my illustration; which is a goal for this year.

Everyone needs a treat when they're feeling down or poorly, and who doesn't want a cuddly plush snake? I feel like Jelly Cat should do one (if they don't already 😊)

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"In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan

Earth stood hard as iron

Water like a stone

Snow had fallen

Snow on snow on snow

In the bleak midwinter

Long, long ago"

I really wanted to post a Christmas illustration so here's my favourite scene from the entirety of BBC Ghosts in honour of its last ever episode today!

It makes me cry so much every time I watch it and it sums up Christmas so perfectly ❤️

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"We can go off together" We were all thinking it, when this scene appeared in the 60th Doctor Who episode "The Giggles" "Context: This image depicts the demon Crowley played by David Tennant from Good Omens sitting next to his "husband" the angel Aziraphale played by Michael Sheen from Good Omens. They are watching the 14th Doctor from Doctor Who deliver a line that Crowley repeatedly asked his Angel. It's a cute show." htttp: www.ko-fi.com/beanart

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"I used to know your grandad, Wilf. I loved that man."