The Silver Doe

Here's my poster for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Other than Prisoner of Azkaban, this is probably my favorite of the HP films. Directed by David Yates, the film is essentially the calm before the storm, before the final showdowns at the Battle of Hogwarts. It's surprisingly mature and emotionally rich, while still providing impressive action beats.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione go on the run and try to finish Dumbledore's work in destroying the Horcruxes. Meanwhile, Voldemort grows stronger and gains power and influence across the wizarding world.

Detail - Patronus

Front and center is the silver doe patronus that leads Harry to the sword of Gryffindor underneath the ice. The patronus makes for a great image and is pretty beautiful considering who sent the doe to help Harry.

With this poster, I'm 3/4 of the way done with six out of the eight films. Next up is the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which I'm tremendously excited about, before I go back and knock out Sorcerer's Stone.

--CKL--

The Cave

Here's my poster for film six of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! The sixth book is probably my favorite of the series and I feel the film, directed by David Yates, does an admirable job adapting it. Naturally, a lot has to be left by the wayside in order to make it a digestible film. While there are parts of the book that are sadly missing and changed, I think that the streamlining of the plot to focus primarily on Harry was for the most part very smart.
At the top of the poster, we see the cave where Harry and Dumbledore go to seek out a Horcrux that contains a part of Voldemort's soul. Swarming them from both sides are the Inferi, which are dead bodies that have been reanimated by a dark wizard to do their bidding.

Detail - Inferi

Well that's five down and three to go on this series! I'm very excited to do both posters for the two Deathly Hallows films. Or I at least feel that way based on my sketches. We'll see if I feel differently once it comes time to do the finished versions.

 --CKL--

Harry Potter!

So there's this small little film coming out today, not a whole lot of hype or anything, called Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows.
I almost hate to admit it, but I'm really excited about this film, although I didn't go last night at midnight. Whoops. I remember sitting on my couch and devouring Deathly Hallows from start to finish the day it came out. And it's been really quite interesting to watch how both the films and the cast of the HP films have matured and consistently gotten better and better. It's really quite an achievement for a movie franchise.
Anyway, from the dark, melancholic look of the trailers and the rave reviews I've read thus far, its shaping up to be the best of the franchise, like The Empire Strikes Back of the HP films.
In order to celebrate this cinematic event, I decided to do an illustration about the film featuring a bloodied Harry in a dork forest using his wand to light the way while three Death-Eaters lurk in the background. I went through all of the trailers and clips from the film to get reference for Daniel Radcliffe, as he and the rest of the cast have definitely grown up. In looking up the Death-Eaters, I found a great picture of all of the masks, which are really quite ornate and beautiful.I also used Photobooth for some quick reference. Despite what I've been told and how easy it would be, I still haven't ever been Harry Potter for Halloween. Maybe I can pull off the Pagemaster.
Below is a gif of my process from pencils to the final illustration.

I had a lot of fun throughout the entirety of this piece in trying to convey the darker and grittier tone the HP films have taken on as they draw to a close. I'll definitely be doing a follow-up piece when the second film is released next summer!

--CKL--