What wonderfully messy hair!

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Thank you! He may not like it, but I think messy Harry hair is very fun to draw ;)

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If you have not noticed yet - the picture does not load anymore :(

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Oh no, really? It loads just fine for me?

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I just had to use a different browser :P

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Watercolour!love ♥ This deserves to be seen by moe people - did you post it to any of the HP art-comms?

The line art is very nice too :)

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Thanks so much! Oh, that makes me happy. No, I've not posted it anywhere but my journal. I'm fairly new to this livejournal business, I have no idea where I'd post to... Do you have any suggestions?

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For anything HP related hp_fringeart is a nice and friendly place - you should go join :) Don't worry about admission, it's a very accomodating comm. You might also apply for membership on omniocular - they're taking applications at the moment. And outer_hogsmeade is for art not directly HP related (although it's been rather quiet lately, but you could help change that perhaps), and art_apart is for all teh artists to hang out and help each other out. Beta help on specific works in progress can be found on artbeta.

I guess I could throw even more places at you, but this is probably already enough to confuse you, so I'll stop now!

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Eee, thanks, that helps a lot! I just went and joined hp_fringeart (or well, I'm waiting to be excepted) And I sent an application to omniocular as well. How exciting! I think I'll go check out the rest of those links now :)

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Have fun with the links! You can also join accio_newbies if you'd like a place to ask questions, or even find a "mentor" to help you out getting started in fandom.

I'm going to friend your journal to keep up with what you post - feel free to friend back or not as you please :)

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Yay! *adds back*

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Aww...he's so cute. And I like how the colors came out!

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Oh, thank you. Yay, you like the colors ♥ I was nervous about painting it, I'm definitely a novice when it comes to watercolor.

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Aww... he looks so cute in that big hat. Nice color palette.

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Thank you :) I'm glad you like him (and his hat)!

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Aw! Little Harry. I like all three.

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Thanks so much, I'm happy you like them!

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Great pictures :) I love how it seems to be 3D.

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Thank you :D I think I got that type of look by really working the paint, especially on his hat. I almost (but not quite) killed my paper doing it, haha.

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Ooh, I really like this. It's definitely a different kind of style of watercolour than what you usually see. (Watercolour is mah favourite painting medium, lols)

The only pointers I have to pass along to you are what my art prof told me -- with watercolour, half the beauty is what isn't painted. It's all about the negative space. So a lot of the time, the more highlighted areas are ones that are actually just left blank, and then the pigment forms these really sort of organic brush lines along the border of that space.

I'm not describing well, I don't think. this is a picture I did a long time back that I think you can sorta see what I mean. It's not awesome drawing-wise, but the technique-yness is there.

But pshaw, I don't think you need to think about that. I love the bold colours and almost fairy-tale, story book feel to the illustration of this one. ^____^ I just thought since you asked. ^^

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Ah, thank you!! I feel oddly like pinching your cheeks. I don't know, I'm tired, ahaha.

I think I really felt a kind of breakthrough with this picture. I'm taking a watercolor class this semester and the teach had us using tube paints and bamboo brushes. And while I'd done a wee bit of watercolor before I'd always used smaller, shorter-bristled brushes, and cake paints. And I was just at a loss as to how to get any pigment on my paper (I was doing it in a very dumb way I realize now, because, hi, watercolors may come in tubes like oil and acrylic paint, but that doesn't mean you can handle them the same way). It was really frustrating because I would end up liking my concept a lot and liking my drawing. And having my painting be really shitty. But then I just (finally) sat down and practiced and worked out a way of doing things that worked for me.

Yes, yes, I totally know what you mean! Watercolor is so interesting to me because it has these elements of loose movement and freedom, and also of restrained delicacy. Like you need to be able to be completely lose in a very controlled way. Or something. I'm definitely still having trouble with the whole less-is-more thing. But I do know what you are talking about. I sometimes have trouble stopping :D

Wow I just rambled a whole lot about art. Hope I didn't bore you to death.

And I love your painting! The colors, and the misty quality of the background, and the way the skin is executed, and and the Dean, haha. I now feel even more flattered that you like my little Harry, cause you obviously know what you're doing!

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*giggle blush purr* I'm glad that you like my Dean. I don't get to paint as often as I would like to since I'm generally bogged down in English work of some sort, but sometimes I just *have* to do it, haha.

I totally use the ghetto cake watercolour paints though. *laughs* I always end up, when using tubes of watercolour, treating them like my acrylics just like you said. It's a bad, bad habit. And I have SUCH a hard time with the less-is-more issue. My art teacher used to call my drawings "Wagner-esque" because I put OMG EVERY SINGLE DETAIL into them until they were overdone.

I get what you mean about having to be loose in a controlled way. Like... your wrist is relaxed, but your fingers have to be in absolute control over the brushstrokes, if that makes sense? haha, it's been a REALLY long time since I've talked art with any one older than a 6th grader (I sometimes teach art at my mom's school, haha) so my vocabulary about art kind of reflects that.

But yeah, I loved your Harry!! The line drawing as well was really strong and elegant. I've never been much one to get a strong sketch down before I paint... if I do one at all, I kind of scribble it in with light pencil and then just start painting, so I really like the effect that you created with such a strong, concrete image first.

Heheh. Art babble. *laughs*

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Yes, yes, sometimes you just have to create! I've gone off and on with art so many times and I just think... no matter what my career ends up being, I'll always draw. I have to. It is way easier to find time to do it when I'm taking an art class though.

Harhar, I learned a secret about using tube paints... you put them in your pallet and mix them with water. You can use them like that, only you have to be more careful because they are really wet. But then when they dry... they ARE cake paints, ahaha. Okay, not really a secret, but it took me a while to figure it out, d'oh. Also I still use my ghetto cake paints as well ;)

And don't you just hate it when you know the exact right place to stop working on a piece. Because you've already crossed that point and messed it up. Yeah, I hate that.

You teach art? That is so cool! I'm kind of really impressed by teachers of all kinds.

I seem to NEED to do a finished line drawing/sketch before I start painting or I end up with bad results. And it's SO tempting when I just feel like painting, to start halfway through the sketch! But that's how I end up with really dumb mistakes, that I can see as soon as I'm done, but then can't fix. Also I seem to have completely different styles of drawing when I'm not using pencil, it's weird.

Further art babble ^^

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Haha, well I'm hardly a certified teacher or anything, but I remember lessons I learned from four years of art class, and I rehash them (and dumb them down, lol) for my mom's students. They seem to have fun -- we did classical portriture last week, and abstract art with oil pastels this week. Next time it's going to be anime, since they're all in love with that.

I've tried using the tube paints on a palette and mixing a lot of water with them before putting it on the paper, but I still end up with a more acrylic-y effect than when I use the cake paints. I think it's just the higher concentration of pigment or something.

And yesssss, the moment where you say "Omg. That was PERFECT. And I just wrecked it." That always makes me want to just cry, lols.

I have a hard time fnishing the sketch, haha. Because if I do, I get so caught up in the notion that I'll ruin it by painting that I end up developing it with pencil crayons or some other dry, erasable medium instead. But I can see that you have a completely different style -- when I actually set out TO do a strong, linear sketch, it comes out completely differently as well. I guess it's just what you have in mind.

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Hello there, I hope you had a good week :)

Ah, I remember art classes I took back when I was little. They were great fun. And I feel like it's pretty much impossible to not get something out of an art class! Even if it's just practice, cause god knows that never hurts ^^ Though I still have some of my old stuff... and it's quite shudder-worthy, yuck, haha. At least I can look back and know I've improved.

So, I often HAVE to doing my entire piece in one go. Because otherwise when I come back to it, I'm terrified to touch it, ehehe. But while I'm in the moment I'm just "Let's go!"

Though actually that seems to be changing lately. I can't do that with watercolor, because I almost always draw at night and I have nowhere to paint in my room. And if I were to say, go barging into the kitchen and turning on the light and waking the whole house up... I don't really see that going over well ;)

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*waves*

haha, I usually get out a binder or something to put my painting on. Or I sit on the floor. I have a really hard time working upstairs in the kitchen or the dining room table, because ... I don't know, it just doesn't feel right in a way. At school it's all about the floor or my desk.

Mostly the floor. My desk is usually pretty cluttered. Lols. Or even my lap if the paper is small enough that I can rest it on a book or a binder. I have a very hard time stopping something once I'm in the middle of it, or picking up again once I've stopped, both with writing and drawing. Don't like to break the creative flow, I guess.

Lol, I have all my old stuff shoved into one portfolio out of sight where I never, ever have to look at it again. And if my parents ask me a question about this picture or that picture that I did before my senior year of HS, I just give them a blank look like I have nooooo idea what they're talking about. Survival instinct. ^__^

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Oh man, I think I am physically incapable of working on the floor, haha. And yes, isn't it weird how you can get used to working in a certain place, like say you always sit on one side of the room in class, and then if you try to switch, you feel so omgbackwardswrong!

Lol, good plan! My old artwork is scattered randomly about the house and my room, where I stumble onto it by accident on occasion and am suitably horrified. And yet, I don't want to get rid of it. Such a pack-rat :D

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*eep* I dont' know whether I've replied to this yet or not! If I haven't, I'm so sorry that I've left you hanging!

My art stuff tends to migrate about the house as well, or the residence room, or wherever, hahah. Generally I try to keep the older stuff hidden away in a safe and secure (and untraceable) location, but it tends to reappear inconveniently.

And it's funny that you can't work on the floor... I don't know, it seems that I do my best stuff there, when everything is on one level. It absolutely kills my back though, so you're probably better off, hahaha.

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Snx for you job!
It has very much helped me!

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