“mummy of dragons.”
faerie tale feet piece by hallie m. bertling
inspired by a certain half-giant from a certain series of wizard-y books
one of my happy places is imagining toasting a butterbeer with hagrid. he’s kind and protective, and while he’s a lot braver than i am around creatures of all kinds, as dumbledore says, “i would trust hagrid with my life.”
i had a lot of fun making this piece, so check out the process below and then i’ll tell you all the story iconography you can find in my background pattern painting!
reading through the whole harry potter series, i took character notes for hagrid from each of the seven books.
here’s the second and third page in my mini moleskine journal of images and ideas to best represent hagrid. (below i’ll give you the list of all the things i included in his background painting!
after i had all my story symbols picked out and sketched in my sketchbook, i couldn’t help but think that REAL materials would communicate the furry, fuzzy, hairy-ness that is alllll of hagrid’s persona. so i went to the craft store, borrowed some repurposed leather scraps from my dad’s hobby shed, and got to work! (i didn’t end up using the feathers; a rare editing moment for me. nor did i put the dragon claws poking out of his pocket, but maybe someday i’ll make another one….) ;)
after i narrowed down with story elements to use to tell hagrid’s tale, i re-traced the shapes out of my sketchbook….
another peek as my sketchbook as i worked on witherwings, the monster book of monsters, and his spotted handkerchief.
i scaled those down to appropriate sizes and re-traced them onto my final pattern drawing.
using a piece of graphite paper, i traced each shape again, giving me a light grey line on my watercolor paper.
i used masking fluid on hedwig and his spotted handkerchief, gave the whole painting a light red wash, and then one layer of watercolor at a time, came in painting each shape. yes, it took a long time. :)
slowly adding in more and more layers of color for all of hagrid’s story iconography. i’m using saved gouache mixes, which i create on paper plates, recharged with water and used in transparent layers of color.
i really liked the figure sketch from my sketchbook of our half-giant pal, and used that as a template as i built up layers of fabric, faux fur, leather scraps, and even brass hinges for his bursting vest buttons.
what i didn’t have was soft fabric for hagrid’s pants. my husband was kind enough to let me take a chunk (er, two) from his old painting shirt for the cause. it was worth a trip out to the backyard for a studio visit. ;)
“you all right’?
no, yeh’re not,
course yeh’re not.
but yeh will be.”
my workstation was delightfully messy. and sometimes it’s fun to put your 3-d thinking cap on and create images in layers.
here’s the imagery i included from the books to help tell hagrid’s tale:
sirius’ motorcycle (baby harry delivery to the dursleys’ and another scary adventure much later in the series!)
his pink flowery umbrella (perhaps with some broken wand in there.) ;)
his keys (he is “keeper of the keys” at hogwarts, after all)
the tiny golden key to vault 713
the grubby li’l brown package he retrieves from vault 713
the boats for first year students upon their first arrival to hogwarts
buckbeak the hippogriff (a.k.a. witherwings)
his crossbow
fang, his enormous black bloodhound
norberta’s dragon egg
giant pumpkins from his garden
the monster book of monsters
his polka-dot kerchief
gold baby unicorns (care of magical creatures professor!)
the branch of galbraithian fire he and madame maxime took to karkus the giant
and just one aragog (sorry, ron!)
the original 3-d piece is currently available; contact me!
he’s $525 (+ $40 us shipping), in a handmade black wooden frame, and ready for collecting.
“never known kids like you three for knowin’ more’n yeh oughta.”