Werewolf of Hogwarts'

Welcome back- yep, it's the return of Harry Potter pictures.

I really didn't have any particular plan for what to post tonight- I usually don't know what will get posted until I fire up the computer and find what kind of mood I'm in. Do I feel like posting just a sketch, or do I want to color something? I have a number of sketches already scanned in, just waiting for me to do something with them.

As it turns out, ABC Family Channel had a bit of a "Harry Potter" marathon on today, so that made it a bit easier to decide what to post. Even more so in that the last movie to air was "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", my personal favorite of the movies. Yes, yes- I know you PoA haters out there think it's the worst of the bunch for various technical offenses, but to me it's one of the best because it really shows the characters as people, rather than as pieces to be moved through the plotline and setpieces. The writer and director took the time to give more thought to the characters and how they feel than the previous entries, and the story was straightforward enough that they didn't have to pass along massive amounts of information in two and a half hours (which is why the remaining movies would all benefit from either a three and a half hour runtime or two-volume releases). Anyway, it's a favorite of mine.

Oh- the reason this post relates to 'PoA' is that one of the new characters introduced is Remus Lupin, Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and (spoiler warning!) werewolf. As long-time readers may know, werewolves hold a special place in my blackened little heart, right along with vampires and other such nasty beasties. Lupin is a fantastic character in the books (who's not given nearly enough time) and is well-played in the movies by David Thewlis.

When I decided to draw Lupin, I knew almost immediately what he looked like to my mind's eye. He's described in the novels as looking a bit shabby, often with scratches and such about his face (apparently he doesn't have supernatural healing while running about on all fours). So, I knew he'd look a bit rough around the edges, plenty of scars and whatnot on his face. My drawing here is really an homage to Universal Studio's first screen wolf man, The Werewolf of London. Released in 1935, The Werewolf of London was much closer to Mr. Hyde than the Lon Chaney, Jr. wolf man we all know. So, I took the two ideas, the books shabby, scarred professor, and London's Hyde-like wolf man and combined them into the picture above.

Hope everyone's weekend was good, and I'll be back Wednesday.

Music: "Werewolves of London" (what else?) - Warren Zevon

Love Gone Wrong

Don't get me wrong; I love the character of Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter books (yes, it's another one of those pictures; it's this picture I really don't like. Which is why it's taken months to actually get around to posting it. I drew this not long after I'd picked up the pencil again, and was on the HP kick. Having successfully drawn most of the main characters, I thought I'd get a little more ambitious and not only draw a character, but also draw a little scenery. Well, since I loved the character of Ginny so much, why not her? I have an idea of how to draw her, and hey, I've already drawn Ron, Fred, and George, her siblings, so maybe I can give her a kind of 'family resemblance'? Well, alright, we'll do that. Huh. Well, this is what I'm left with. A character who, according to the book, is quite pretty, looking... not so much. I ended up making her look too much like the Weasley boys, and not enough like a girl. D'oh!

Anyway, I went in to Photoshop and cleaned up the picture as much as I could- and, having colored in Ginny, decided to take a slightly different approach and did the background characters in shades of gray (obviously; I mean, it's right up top here, yeah?). I like the coloring at least. Still lots to learn, both about drawing and Photoshop. Since you've been kind enough to come visit the site, I thought I'd show you all my drawings, not just the ones I feel were successful. I'm not saying this is a lousy picture- it's just not as good as I would have liked, even just as a sketch. Once again, this serves to show the distance from idea to execution is much longer than arm's length.

Thanks for stopping by, as always.

Music: "Change" - The Warren Brothers

Posts of Halloween, Three

Sorry, you're not getting much of a Halloween post today. My original plans for some slick-looking Halloween-type goodness fell by the wayside this weekend. I got some more drawings done, but I'd like to take some time and work more with the ones I've got in the pipeline, to make them look extra-sweet. Plus, Dave's going to give me some Photoshop pointers, so I don't have to try to figure out everything on my own. It's all about the shoulders of giants, my friends...

So anyway, this here is my idea of ass-kicking Auror Alistor "Mad Eye" Moody, one of the many great supporting characters of the often-spoken-of Harry Potter series. Moody was a fan-favorite from the start- which is impressive, considering the whole first book in which we meet him, he's not really him. (you needed to be there, I guess). I know he's quite the favorite of a number of fans, so I hope they like what I've done. This is pretty much how I imagined him looking, with his big freaking electric blue eye and the missing chunk from his nose. I like how this came out- pretty grizzled looking, like he spent years catching bludgers with his face. I'll probably/hopefully return to this picture to give it a good working over with Photoshop- I wanna see that blue eye!

Alrighty, enough for now. I have nothing else of interest to contribute, other than if you're looking for a fun and off-kilter movie, I recommend renting "A Series of Unfortunate Events". Very fun, and an amazingly unique-looking movie. It's worth watching just for the production design. Oh, and Jim Carrey did not suck in it.

Oh- looks like the voting is in, and it's a tie between Frankie and Fang-face. Unsurprising, given the pervasiveness of their images throughout the world of pop culture. sigh... if only everyone knew and loved the Thing From Another World... Thanks to everyone for voting. New poll is as always, to the right.

Cheers!

Music: "O Fortuna" - Carl Orff

Nemesis

Just a quick note for a change. This is Draco Malfoy. Judging by his name, you can guess that he's not a nice guy. Draco is Harry's opposite number in Hogwart's. Imagine the most stuck-up, arrogant kid you can think of, and that's only the start to Draco. And of course, given J.K. Rowling, there's more to him than that.

Draco's sketch here was fairly easy to come up with. I figured he was never happy, and drew him like that. His hair was originally all slicked back, like sometimes done in the movies, but I didn't care for that. So, manga-hair instead.

This is the last Harry Potter-related sketch for a while; not because I don't have more, but it's getting too far out of order, chronologically. So, back in time we'll go...

See you Friday...

Music: "Double Agent" - Rush

The Greatest Gryffindor

Greetings everyone, and welcome back.

Today, yep, another HP character (is it my fault there's like 3.5 million of them?). This unassuming fellow above is Neville Longbottom. In the books, Neville rarely gets much attention- in fact, he's usually played for laughs, accidentally causing some manner of damage to himself or otherwise serving as a source of humor. However, he is slowly revealed to be one of the most interesting and sympathetic characters over the course of the series. Like Snape, he is a character of hidden depth, though unlike Snape, Neville is always likable.

At first, Neville was a hard character to get a handle on. Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville in the HP movies, makes such a strong impression that it's hard not to instantly think of Matthew as the character from the book. He very much personifies Neville. I had set Neville aside to work on some other pieces (yes, what you're seeing is out of order) when I eventually took another thought at the character. What I liked most about Neville in the movie is that he doesn't look like a lead actor- he looks like a regular kid. So I tried to think of Neville as more of an "everyday" kid rather than as one of those kids everyone wanted to be growing up. Someone less photogenic, but more likable. I gave Neville more rounded features, and made him less slim than the others- he hasn't lost his baby fat, and probably won't. Neville looks like a softy. I tried to give him slightly larger, darker eyes as well, showing him as an open, straightforward kind of guy. Also, Neville ended up in street clothes rather than robes for some reason. Neville's favorite class is Herbology, so I figured he'd be holding some kind of plant- this is apparently some manner of magical sunflower.

Hope everyone's weekend was enjoyable. I went to the Baltimore comic book convention (or comicon) this Saturday with my friends Dave and Thad. As always, it was a very enjoyable time. I really like going, because it's a chance to meet the creators of some of my favorite comic books, as well as maybe discover some books I've never seen before. It was the opportunity to see artists in action, drawing sketches for folks left and right- from young hopefuls sketching for $10 up to pros charging multiple hundreds. A good gig if you can get it! I met some of my favorite artists, both new and long-time favorites. I've added links to their sites to the right.

This was also a special convention- this was the first comic book convention since the passing of Mike Wieringo (see my first entry), and it was the industry's chance to express its love for and appreciation of Mike. Judging by the events throughout the day, Mike made a huge impact on just about everyone he ever met, let alone worked with, in the industry. There were a number of vendors and pros who were in some way or another honoring Mike. Mike Wieringo loved animals, at least as much as he loved comics (and that's saying a lot). So, to honor Mike, creators teamed up with the convention showrunner to hold fundraisers all day long, with the intent to donate all the money raised to the Baltimore County Humane Society. Best of all, this is going to be an annual event. It was pretty awesome.

Oh- as you've all seen, I've been drawing a lot of Harry Potter stuff. Well, if you didn't know it, there are hundreds of other folks out there doing some amazing jobs drawing the characters. One woman I found on Friday just amazes me. Imagine Walt Disney making a HP animated movie, and you've pretty much described her style. They're fantastic pictures- I'm glad I only found them now, otherwise I'd have given up drawing them from the start! Check out some of her HP work here and more of her artwork here.

That's all for now! See you Wednesday...

PS You'll be happy to hear I've kinda/sorta started drawing some real people. You know who you are...

Music: "Keep Me In Your Heart" - Warren Zevon

Trust Snape/Snape is a Very Bad Man

Back to Hogwarts...

Here are a couple different shots of the best character in the Harry Potter books, Severus Snape. Snape might not be a favorite character to many, but I think it would be hard to argue that he's not the best character in the books from a purely story point of view. Of course this means that you would probably all argue it, but it's my blog, so there. The reason I think he's such a great character is that, although he's supposedly one of the good guys, there is absolutely nothing good about him at all. He's arrogant, he's supremely self-confident, and he hates the hero of the book with a passion. And yet, he's trusted completely by the supposedly wisest character in the books. The question of whether or not Snape is really on the side of the good guys is a theme that runs through the entire series.

Okay, the pictures. This ended up being more of a set of ideas rather than a single defining sketch. Once I had abandoned my original idea for Snape (see Lucius Malfoy below) I knew I needed a different approach. For me, the idea that brought it all together was by giving Snape the white-on-black eyes. I'm not sure what made me come to that conclusion; it might be that Snape is very talented at hiding his thoughts from even the most powerful wizards. And, as they say eyes are the windows to the soul, I felt that the white-on-black would make for a nice image of shuttered "windows". Kind of convoluted thinking, but that's what I do.

The first sketch was the small one to the left- this was done to try to get a feel for how his face would look 'framed' by his hair. Snape is described as having stringy, greasy hair. Next, I went for the main headshot. This came across very well, I think. I wanted Snape to look very confident, almost condescending, but not actually evil or anything like that. I wanted him to look like he knows something very embarrassing about you, and he wouldn't hesitate in the slightest to use it against you. And again, the eyes. The last shot, the profile, was done to try to get a better feel for Snape's nose. I always imagine it as broken (it's described as hooked), and I like the idea of him looking down his nose with disgust at someone (most likely Potter). All in all, I'm very pleased with these shots- if anything were to be changed, I'd like to try for a more greasy look to Snape's hair, and maybe try to make him even more condescending and smarmy.

Also, there's a new poll to the right.

Baltimore Comicon is this weekend- you all know where I'll be now :) Have a good weekend; come back Monday for more Pottery. (sorry, it just typed itself out)

Cheers!

Music: "The Hand That Feeds"- Nine Inch Nails

Wonder Twin Powers...

Welcome back from the holidays.

Today I'm continuing with the HP sessions, so to speak. This time around I've got the scene-stealers of the HP books, Fred and George Weasley. Fred and George rarely take center-stage in any of the books, but are still very popular. They are unrepentant tricksters, always willing to test out some new trick on an unsuspecting victim. However, they are loyal friends of Harry. Anyway.

With these pictures, I was trying to hit a couple of notes. One, I wanted there to be some resemblance between these sketches and Ron; after all, they're family. I tried to use a similar jawline and nose as with Ron's picture a few days ago. Also, the freckles. Two, I wanted to get across some of the rebelliousness of the characters. Whereas I imagine most of the folks in the HP world to have longer hair (being out of touch with muggle styles), I wanted the Twins to have short, stylish haircuts. Fred's wearing a stylish dragon-skin coat, while George is wearing his Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes work-robe. Hopefully they look like they're full of fun and life, while being guaranteed to be pulling a fast one on you. And they're wearing bolo ties, for some reason...

A short post today, so hopefully I'll have something more to contribute next time around...

Music: "The Other Side of the World" - K.T. Tunstall

Supporting Roles

Yes, more HP. I swear, I have drawn other things.

These two disparate characters are Seamus Finnegan and Lucius Malfoy, pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum in the Harry Potter novels. Both sketches here came about indirectly- or, more to the point, I was intending to draw one thing, and this is what happened instead.

I was sketching out a pose for Neville Longbottom (HP character, of course)when I looked down at it and thought, "oh, that's Seamus." So I scrapped Neville (which is fine- I didn't have a strong enough idea of what he'd look like) and Seamus more or less showed up fully formed on the page. I have no idea why he's posing like that for a photo, but that's what he wanted to do.

The other sketch, Lucius Malfoy, was a bitch to get on paper. Mainly because it was actually supposed to be Severus Snape. I had a very definite idea of how I wanted Snape to be posed: head back, looking down his nose with contempt at someone (most likely some poor Gryffindor). So, it ended up on the paper, but the more I looked at it, the less i thought it was Snape. If anything, that sneer reminded me of Lucius Malfoy. Also, they eyes were too... smug, I suppose. Which, the more I thought of it, made me realize that's not the direction I wanted to go with Snape at all. So, a liberal application of eraser (Snape had a stronger jawline and a broken nose) some refinement of what was there, and viola! Malfoy the Elder.

Some brief notes:

If you'll look over amongst the links, you will see one called "Mark's Charity". My Brother Mark is collection donations as part of a Special Olympics fundraiser. If you can, please take a minute to donate. Every little bit helps.

Also- with the labor day holiday coming up, There will probably not be a weekend posting. However, I expect to be back here on Monday morning (or Sunday night) and so should still have a post up that day. Then again, you all know me...

For you uninitiated out there, if you're interested in learning a bit more about the world of Harry Potter, check out this link at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_potter . It has a nice summary of the books and what all the craziness is about. You muggles you.

Everyone have a good weekend- Enjoy the picnic and lack of laboring, and see you around.

Music: "Lazy Eye"- Silversun Pickups

How I Spent My Hogwart's Vacation, by Steve D.

Now, where was I?

Right, sketches, chronological order, stuff like that. Well, here we have the third (or fourth and fifth, I suppose) sketch done after having been re-bitten by the drawing bug. These are two of my favorite characters from the Harry Potter series, Ron Weasely and Hermione(her-MY-oh-knee)Granger. As you can see, my head was still overfull of HP-goodness, and I needed some kind of outlet.

For whatever reason, the main three characters are the ones I most easily picture differently from their filmic counterparts. For a lot of the characters, I often imagine them to look like the way they're portrayed in the movies. But for the three main characters, I usually see them differently. Which is not to say that these drawings are my final word on what they look like- this is just what ended up on the paper when I was drawing.

I would say these versions of Hermione and Ron are about 17 or 18... Ron's confidence has grown, but Hermione's tolerance for Ron acting like a child has not. And no, Ron's not giving Hermione the "piss off, fascists!" sign. He's giving it to someone else.

I'm fairly pleased with how they both turned out. I drew Ron first, then Hermione. Ron was initally just a head sketch, but when I put the smile on his face, I knew he needed to be gesturing something. Once I finished Ron, it only made sense to draw Hermione next, and her pose came fairly naturally put next to Ron. Hopefully some sense of her annoyance carries through in her look and pose. Maybe it was too many years of drawing angry superheroes or whatever, but I have a tough time conveying emotions on a sketch's face- other than anger or boredom. I now see why so many artists use photoreference for facial features. Or a mirror. Mirror's good.

I decided on making the HP characters look more cartoony for two reasons- one, at the time I wanted a very clean, strong line with them, and the cartoon aesthetic gives me that. Two, I wanted to approach the characters with a more realistic effort later on, but not then and there. I think I succeeded better with Ron than with Hermione because it's much easier to exaggerate facial features on a guy and keep him looking "handsome" than on a girl and keeping her "pretty". Or it is for me, at least. Even in drawing, women are a mystery to me...

coming up: more HP stuff.

For those of you worried this will be an HP love-fest, don't worry. I've got all kinds of other geekery waiting for you. And a list of more stuff to work on.

Since you're here, please take a moment to check out the poll to your right. I have a bunch of different ideas for things to draw, but I'd like to know if you (and you know who you are) would like to see anything in particular. Or at least as particular as the poll gets. Or feel free to e-mail suggestions. Bad ones will be ignored, good ones will be appropriated and claimed as my own.

See you Thursday.

Music: "Secret Garden"- Peter Gabriel

Double-barrelled postings

I'm anxious to post more here soon, so here's a double post- scroll down for all the fun!

TOM AND HARRY

Alright, now we're getting to it.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out while we were on vacation. And, being proper fans, we went out Friday night to pick up our copies at Midnight. So as you can imagine, we spent the next day reading, and reading, and reading. I finished it that night. Not to spoil for those who haven't read it yet, but it was EXCELLENT! So naturally, my friends and I spent much time that week talking about everything that happened in it, and our thoughts on the how and why and what next of it. My mind was full of thoughts and ideas about the Wizarding World of the Harry Potter books. I couldn't stop thinking about all the characters, and what happened to all of them. As I sat there with my sketchpad, looking to draw something, it wasn't much of a stretch to settle on the characters from the books.

One of the things I love about the series is the world-building that went on throughout each of the novels. Rowling managed to take a seemingly-thin concept ("kid wizards at school, right...") and made it a living, breathing, "real" world to millions. Not to mention what the movies have done for all the images she described. The great thing about novels is that they let us imagine for ourselves what everything described looks like. So, all of us have our own ideas of what Harry Potter, Dumbledore, or whoever looks like. But, I'd never thought to draw them before. And, since I was so itching to draw, this is what I started with.

I settled on a more cartoony style for the characters, for two reasons. One, less realism with the characters invites less comparison with the movies (as much as I love the movies, I don't always agree with what I see). Two, the image of Voldemort pretty much came fully-formed into my head before I even started sketching. And, as he doesn't look very realistic (for a back-from-the-dead snake-guy), I thought cartoony might be the better way to go. Optimally, I would have drawn this image of Voldemort using french curves.

Harry was another one who came to me pretty much fully-formed. There's really only three features you need to do a reasonable Harry Potter drawing: the Hair, the Scar, and the Glasses. So that's what I went with. Hopefully I managed to impart a little look of determination into the sketch. My thinking was this was a late-in-the-game Harry. And, again, the cartoony face. Less lines also means less opportunities to screw up. Imagining this image in 3D makes me think of some type of anime character with improbably pointy hair.

Expect more HP characters...

Music: "Flash Gordon (Theme)" - Queen

FIGURE STUDY

This was the first sketch I did while on vacation- it had been so long since I'd drawn anything at all (other than layouts for paintings), I really needed to warm up with a sketch. Basically, I needed to see that I could still draw. If I couldn't make a person look like a person, all the enthusiasm in the world wasn't going to help me any. This poor person had the misfortune to fall asleep. I'm pretty pleased with the sketch, though one of my weaknesses is placement- had I planned better, I would have turned the paper, thus avoiding the partial decapitation. A lot of times, I will find that the picture "gets away from me", taking on its own directions as it needs. layouts only get me so far, and the picture will frequently change as I get more lead onto paper. This is fine when sketching from imagination, less so when sketching from life. Something to work on.

Life drawings are a tricky business, particularly when you're attempting to achieve some manner of likeness. For me, likenesses are a happy coincidence when I'm trying to just get the form right. For me, and for many artists, I think, success is when someone can look at a drawing of yours and say, "oh, that's such-and-such". A skilled artist can convey likeness in just a few lines- Mike Mignola, another favorite comic book artist of mine, is well-known for his very minimalist style, often using and handful of lines to suggest features. Yet, his adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula had some of the most accurate likenesses to be found in comics.

I'm hoping to convince, cajole, or bribe some friends into sitting for some figure sketching at some point. Hopefully someone would be able to recognize them in my sketches.

Music of the Moment: "Supermassive Black Hole"- Muse