Um... Harry Potter fanart. Apparently.

My feelings about Harry Potter have traditionally ranged from the actively vitriolic to the mildly dismissive (although, to be fair, this is more inspired my the disproportional love the franchise receives rather than the books themselves which I have read and mostly enjoyed).

Actually, my attitude mellowed considerably recently since seeing the final film. It was pretty poor stuff, and it made me realised Rowling's not inconsiderable skills as a storyteller - that with the same materials she could produce something ten times as exciting, moving and satisfying as the filmmakers mustered. Although the 'nineteen-years-later' coda has a the quality of bad fanfiction no matter who is doing it.

Anyway.

As posted previously I started this picture with different characters in mind but couldn't get the idea of the Marauders (plus Lily) out of my head once I'd thought of it.

If not clear, it's Lily, Peter, Sirius, Remus and James l-r.

A Study In Mixed-Media

Lolz.

It's Holmes and Watson!

... Okay, not by any traditional standard, but I'm a big fan of the BBC version and also love the Downey Junior/Law portrayal (though I find the film otherwise patchy). And the way in which I appreciate things is by putting them through the prism of my own convoluted character design process.

The thing that particularly fascinates me about Holmes, apart from all the obvious things that ake his a popular character, is the little acknowledged fact that he's 27 years old in A Study In Scarlet. Not only has this been worked out according to other canonical facts - to me he really reads like a young man. The nervous arrogance, the ambition of a man at the beginning of his career, the lack of money, the need to share his flat. Indeed, when Watson first meets Holmes, he mistakes him for a student. Arthur Conan Doyle was 27 when he wrote the story. I'm 27 now. It's no wonder I find a 27-year-old Holmes interesting.

Watson, I think is a bit older - he's gone through medical traing AND seen active service in the army. Early 30s at least.

The thing that makes them one of the great partnerships in fiction is the same thing that ALL great double-acts boil down to - not that I can define exactly what that is (the right balance of mutual dependancy and antagonism?) but I mention it because I was thinking about Russell Brand while I sketched Holmes. His relationship with friend and radio show co-host Matt Morgan prompted me to relate him to Holmes: the sharp intelligence, the ego, the bohemianism, the outsider status (which I think all comedians have to some extent - interested in people but not of them), the dependance on a few strong human bonds, one in particular...

Anyhoo. A vague narrative evolved as I was working: a Hound-Of-The-Baskerville's-style situation; Holmes and Watson called urgently to the murder scene from their beds (I guess explains Holmes shirtlessness?); an outdoor murder scene drenched in mud and blood.

So this, therefore, is Holmes and Watson having a quiet smoke in a blood-trampled porch, recovering from the gore in the case of Watson, who is remarkably squeamish for a soldier and a doctor; and beginning to theorise in the case of Holmes.

It was really just a character design exercise but I'm tempted to contextualise the figues more - hint at the nighttime setting, the stone wall they're standing against etc...

Dido Twite and Simon Battersea

...And in the meantime:

Young Dido Twite, cockney street-sparrow-turned-repeated-saviour-of-the-English-monarchy and her friend Simon Battersea, one-time-long-lost-heir-to-the-Duchy-of-Battersea and briefly king of England.

As far as I'm concerned Joan Aiken's Wolves Of Willoughby Chase and its sequels are some of the great childrens' books. Despite the 'classic' status of the former, the books get no where near enough attention (not least on DA). Dido is the hero of the bulk of the series and Simon, star of Black Hearts in Battersea, recurrs as well. I love their friendship and loyalty to one another. There's a bare hint of romance towards the end of the series but mostly Aiken never seems to feel the need to examine their relationship. They meet in youth (Dido's nine, Simon's a teenager) and grow up an undisclosed amount in the book

I've drawn them both as young adults, so some time after the end of the series, and tried to depict an interaction that could be romantic or not. I based it on a photo by Venetia Dearden. Dido seems to have grown her hair but it doesn't look as if she ever brushes it, the perennial urchin. I had trouble with her wolfskin jacket: she looks like a biker. I'm more pleased with Simon's Regency coat... except in the Wolves alternate history, there is no Regency of course... buh.

I should also add that , for extra London authenticity, the brown paper it's painted/collaged onto is a paper bag from the last time I had fish and chips.

Inspired particularly by finding actual (and brilliant) Joan Aiken fanfic

More A Little Princess

An updated version of this. In fact, apart from Becky's hair (she's the girl higher on the page) I haven't done any more work to the original, but I've played around in Photoshop to test ideas.

I really like the physical copy of this, but I can't get it to look good on screen - and that's something I've been thinking about lately: producing work that can be more successfully reproduced digitally. My two favourite recent bits of work are the character design for the father from Beauty And The Beast and my other A Little Princess illustration.

So perhaps the way forward is a slightly less texture/more watercolour-y approach with the acrylics, and using paper as flat pattern more than textured collage.

Anyway, I again did a quick mock-up of how this might look as a book cover and I think the result is not bad: