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Behind the Scenes: Divination Class Illustration
🕑 Added 2023-02-21 11:52:50 +0000 UTC
I love taking inspiration from the major releases in popular culture. TV, movies, games. I gobble it all. Wizarding world never got a proper game and closest I got to playing something entertaining in the HP universe ,was a LEGO console game. The more I was excited, when I heard about a AAA open-world game with Hogwarts setting. It's called Hogwarts Legacy and I can't wait to play a bit.
Unfortunately, no spare time yet to play, but I can always use my excitement for something and turn it into a productive energy. I already created several of these semi-realistic HP inspired dioramas focused on classrooms for the different Hogwarts subjects, so this was a great opportunity to continue the series.
I've looked up a list of a different subjects taught at the school and I was looking for something unique, as opposed to dark and gloomy dungeons and dark arts classrooms. Divination class was a perfect candidate!
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I went over to Pinterest to create a board to save all my inspiration in. As always with movies and TV, it's hard to come across a good set of images that would capture the movie set in details and at different angles. And the game screenshots were sparse, because it wasn't out yet. In cases like that, I always go and explore other sources, like fan-art, book artworks.
You can go even further and have a look at things like LEGO sets. If not for the visual inspiration, then for the list of details and elements. Anything can be helpful to form a final image in your head.
From the gathered resources, I could clearly see the distinct parts, that need to be used in order to deliver a recognizable result. Things like the tower stair and door, teacher's chair, student's stools and round tables, crystal balls, arches and drapes. Quite a lot to cover.
I found myself quite puzzled when beginning the sketch. Most of the time, it's quite simple in a sense, where you just have regular walls, door and other elements to organize. This was quite a different thing, because the classroom is a tower room intersecting with another smaller tower element, there are different arches and complex structures around the windows and it all makes the classroom look like a large tent.
I went through several sketch attempts to find the right layout, but I always ended up with erasing the whole thing. It simply didn't work. So I had to change the approach and I started to think in separated elements. Sketched out the rounded floor and appended few of the elements I wanted to include.
And suddenly I was looking at an abstract representation of a room, which I liked immediately. Who says it has to have walls? I embraced this new abstract approach and sketched in other parts of the room and details. Immediately, the work went much easier, when I allowed myself to change the premise of the whole layout.
Without this dicovery and sketching phase, I probably wouldn't be able to come up with a final design like this.
You can watch the process video on Youtube
