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

[gnatkip.livejournal.com]

I love this SO MUCH. It is so much more awesome than I'd even imagined. It has personality! And also a nose! And hair! And the lines are gorgeous. And you used tea! ajsdklfjalfjdsa

[ratcreature]

I'm glad you like it! The crosshatching was quite challenging for me, because it's been so long since I used it last, but in the end the style was fun. I think I'll be doing more magical beasts and make this a series. I was thinking of maybe doing a runespoor or a diricawl next, though doing one of the more obscure ones might be fun also. I don't think I've ever seen fanart showing a dugbog, lobalug, murtlap or tebo for example. I mean, I'm sure they've been done somewhere in a fandom as large as HP, but I think it's still a niche compared to say drawings of basilisks or hippogriffs.

And your tea suggestion worked out really well to get an aged paper effect, though I cheated a bit in that I stained a paper different from the one I drew the bowtruckle on and merged in GIMP, because the paper with my inks in the end turned out to not have a large enough empty border to tape it down to prevent it from warping too much after soaking.

WRT the nose-- I think I'm incapable of drawing monsters without noses if I can possibly fit one onto them somehow. (I suspect the lack of noses is one of my major problems with manga styles and why I dislike them so, I imprinted on big-nosed cartoons early on *g*).