After a tiny bit more levelling up around Anor Londo, I decided I'd give the painting a go, as I fancied a change of scene. Went in, up the bridge, and into the castle. Standard enemies at first, piece of piss, and then upwards and met one of those bloated, deformed things that spits fire and is toxic too. Bit of a pain to deal with at first, but thankfully had some purple moss stuff. It was pretty straightforward then, just following the fairly linear route through the buildings, dealt with a few harpies, and then up to the very top of the circular structure for an item, and then back down. Think it was here that I noticed the big guy on the bridge, but knew there was more the other way that I hadn't explored yet, so went down, through the doors into the courtyard area, and found a load of slug things with shields and spears. Not too difficult on their own, but a bit tricky when there are so many of them. No real bother though, and so I explored the rest of this area, opened the door back to the entrance of the castle, and found a few useful items and bits of armour around here too. Ventured down a ladder into a kind of sewer area, and damn, those skeletal wheel things don't mess around do they? Easy enough to damage, but you've got to wait for it to calm the strawberry float down before attacking, otherwise you can quickly get killed, especially if there's more than one. Died a couple of times down here, but got the items, and went back upstairs.
Over to the other side of the courtyard this time and down the well, where there were some more spinny skeletons, and some hidden walls. Found the annex key, and then went back up. Opened the annex and explored all around there. Not too bad, but the section where four or five harpies descened onto you was quite tough and caught me out. After exploring everywhere, it was back down to the bridge, and to face the skeleton dragon thing. It caught me out the first time with its poison breath and damaging swipes, but second attempt it was very straightforward. There's a clear place to shelter from its attacks, so just a bit of patience, and it was job done.
I couldn't figure out where to go next, as I'd been everywhere except for through the locked down on the ground floor. I had to look up how to open it, as I'd missed the switch in the sewer. Back down there, rotate the mechanism, and then back up and along the bridge. Took out a few chumps and the knight, and then through the fog door. Spoke to the boss lady, and got given the choice of fighting her or not. I figured I'd attack, but just wanted to the check out the view and the 'plank' that she was talking about. Next thing I know a cut scene starts, and apparently me moving towards the edge was me saying that I wanted to leave, so that was that
I thought I'd actually have to jump off the edge, like the boss said. Oh well, couldn't be arsed to re-trace my steps then, so I might come back again and beat her, might not.
Back in Anor Londo, a little bit more levelling up, and then on to trying to get past the archers again. Back up the steps, past the knights (who by now are easy) and take out the imps which are no bother either really. Sprint up the ramp, then the second one, and almost instantly get knocked off the edge
Three or four attempts later, and with some carefully-timed rolls, I was able to make it over the one on the right and kill him in two hits. No idea if there's anything over on the left by the other archer, but I wasn't going to go back around the corner and find out, so I dropped down to the ledge below, through the window (or was it a door?) and into the building. Opened the door on the right and saw a knight, so backed out and opened the door on the left, and found the bonfire
Worked my way through the building, room by room, floor by floor, and while the knights are pretty tough, it wasn't too bad. Died a few times for sure, but the fairly enclosed nature of the place, and the close bonfire, meant it was never too far back or too much hassle after dying. Gradually cleared the place out, taking out version two of the shooty lightning guy from back in Undead Parish, and then on to exploring the main room and the passageways off it.
Through exploring this I found a few items, and also the blacksmith. Out the door, beat a few more imps, and then opened the gate to open the shortcut back to the staircase with the two knights near the central lift (love doing that and creating paths back to previous areas). I knew that up next it was taking on the two big knights in the main hall, so I went back to the original bonfire at the start of Anor Londo, rested and levelled up, and then back the way I'd come and into the main hall. They weren't actually that difficult, and so after taking them out I was able to open the main doors and a clear path back to the start. Figured that if the bosses were next (which I assumed they were due to the fog door) then I'd need to rest, and that doing so at the original bonfire might be better, as I could probably just run past the knights and up to the fog door without taking damage.
Tried that (but got caught slightly) and then went into the boss fight. Quite a lot going on in this fight, with ranged attacks, attacks you can't seem to block or avoid, one slow(ish) enemy and one that's more agile, not much of a pattern to pick up on (or if there is, more difficult to discern because of having to focus on two enemies) and generally a bit of a ballache. On my second or third attempt I took out Ornstein, but in doing so made Smough stronger, which wasn't ideal. Fairly quickly died after that.
Turns out that running from the original bonfire and then trying to make it past the four knights between you and the boss fight is a) easier said than done, and b) tedious as strawberry float, so eventually I changed to the other bonfire inside the building and used that as my starting point. You have to get through two knights on the way, but it feels quicker, and I can now make it to the boss pretty unscathed and without it feeling as tedious. I gave the boss a few more attempts, and while I can damage them and take decent chunks of health off, I run out of Estus and succumb to Smough's seemingly-unblockable and annoying attacks. It definitely feels doable though, I just need to practise and work out how best to avoid some of the attacks.