Hey Hive!
We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my drawings and the process behind them. A behind-the-scenes look at my artwork, if you will. This is not to say that I'm very good at art, or that I'm a professional in any way. In fact this is the opposite, and serves as a reminder to how I first started, and lets me track my progress too!
So back in September 2020, I saw there was a link online for the ebook version of the entire Harry Potter collection for sale! And it was only $1.50 too! What a steal! I thought it might be a scam, but there were a couple of positive reviews and I figured it's only $1.50 so it was worth a shot. And lo and behold it wasn't a scam at all! And within 1 day I got the full pdf versions of the entire Harry Potter collection which consists of 11 books (the 7 main books and 4 spinoffs)!
I'm so glad I found that link; it had been at least 10 years since I first read the Harry Potter books and the last time I did that was with the physical versions. Since then I've really preferred digital books since there's night mode and I can read it at night. And I don't have to worry about getting the books dirty.
Anyway, to commemorate reaching my favourite book in the series (Prisoner of Azkaban), I thought I'd draw a special minimalist piece on Hogwarts! It'd been a while since my last black and white piece and I figured Hogwarts has the amount of detail I need to pull off that style again. I used this vector/sticker I found online for reference.
Source: eBay
But I also had a couple of other elements I wanted to include, such as the Black Lake, the giant squid, some trees and Sirius and Buckbeak escaping into the night above Hogwarts. So after a while, this was my sketch:
Next it was time to outline! It was kinda difficult to draw Buckbeak and Sirius' silhouette but I tried my best.
I had to be very careful with the outline on the castle though, so I changed to a thinner marker to make sure I didn't screw up. Since there was areas where it was gonna be left white.
And eventually, we got this for the final piece!
I initially thought the castle had too much black, but I think it worked in a way. The contrast between the blackness of the castle and the whiteness of the lake and hills kinda works, and I like it! I definitely screwed up Buckbeak though because he looks more like a flying boar than a hippogriff, but oh well.
Overall, I think this piece turned out well nonetheless! I think the squid looks cute, the shadows on the castle looked cool and the forest had my classic black and white style.
But man, reading those books again really took me back to the first time I read them. What a different time in my life that was. So much has changed, but the emotions whenever I read Harry Potter will always be the same. On re-reading I found a lot more stuff that foreshadowed future happenings though, so it was interesting.
Anyway I guess that's all for now! Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
