fanart (kind of a WIP), Bowtruckle

[ratcreature]

Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: a bowtruckle
Media used: pencil, fine liner pen with waterproof indian ink, black tea, GIMP
Rating/warnings: G, none
Notes/comments: The drawing is finished, however I hope there'll be better text eventually that would make it seem more like an excerpt from an old book about magical creatures from the HP universe. For now I've just added some text labeling it like a plate in an encyclopedia would be, so you have to imagine the suitable text going with it. Its style is supposed to reminiscent of early encyclopedias, like Diderot's from the 18th century with copperplate engravings of observed plants and animals. My attempt at this isn't very convincing because this is the first time I've done a b/w picture in ink with crosshatching since I think 9th? grade when we learned the technique in school, but considering that it is not so bad. I may do more HP beasts in this style eventually as part of this imaginary book too, but I haven't decided which yet.

Preview:

Comments

[ileliberte.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is lovely! I really like all the ways you make it look so genuine, the shading, the fine lines of the bark, the texture of the paper, really nice. The only little niggling I have is with the text, it looks really crisp and new, especially given the state of the page and the color of the ink on the engraving. But all in all, really nice work :)

[ratcreature]

Yeah, the text is more a placeholder for now. I've added it digitally and not done anything to make it look "aged". I've had an offer from someone to tranform the bits of text from the "Fantastic Beasts" volume into something more time appropriate, but that's taking a bit and I was impatient to post the drawing itself (I'm not good with sitting on stuff *g*). I figure that when I have the real text I'll adjust its color a bit, and maybe fiddle a bit with it to make the page look more cohesive.

But I'm glad you like it otherwise.

ETA: I adjusted the color of the text a bit. It still pops out somewhat as crisper, but its color now matches the ink of the faux-engraving better I think.