HP Tarot card progress - The Emperor

[nendil]

MAXIMUM SMUGNESS FULL SPEED AHEAD.

Pretty sloppy but I feel this is enough to be going on with. The Empress is (sort of) sunrise; The Emperor is (sort of) sunset. There's no significance behind that beyond that the lighting fit the color palettes I wanted.

Edit: Oh yeah, gotta ask all y'alls. Does he look sufficiently "James", and not just "older Harry"? (I'd like to hope the smugness helps there.)

I'm finding that my art efficiency is improving tremendously since I started setting aside a temp folder to collect "style guides", or art/pictures that inspire the feel I want for the current piece. Since I consider my painting process to be something like "correcting a series of mistakes until all the most offensive ones are gone," this really helps cut down on the time I spend fumbling around trying to find the "look" I want.

Comments

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

I think he looks sufficiently un-Harry. Actually, I think he looks a little too old, but maybe that's just the sketch lines making him look like he has smile wrinkles. (He wouldn't have wrinkles, right? He didn't live old enough... >_>) I also realize there's a tension between him being father-figure Emperor and being in a setting from his schoolboy days.

Is he going to have both his wand and a broom? I feel like that kind of unbalances the masculine/feminine symbolism, especially since the snitch is already so small. XP

[nendil.livejournal.com]

I was briefly thinking about the schoolboy thing yesterday too, actually, but we don't really have any context for James from after that. I HATE THIS CARD. XP (though I do like the art.)

Hah, you actually identified the broom. The Emperor has feminine symbolism? I thought he was just manly structure/control all around. I mean I know the globe is there but does it matter much?

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

Well, he's supposed to have the globe in one hand and a staff in the other, which to me implies some sort of balance. But yeah, I guess it doesn't really matter. If it bothers anyone else, we can mush the broom into some other aspect of Emperor symbolism (ram, eagle, whatever).

[summercomfort]

Yeah, can tell it's not-Harry ... the Prongs help, and the difference in face shape helps (I think your Harry has a heart-shaped face?), and the smugness/impishness helps.

[nendil.livejournal.com]

I think my Harry does develop more of a jaw as he grows older (much like Daniel Radcliffe himself), but I'll work that out later. :) There are surprisingly few cards where you get a good look at his face.

[torkell]

I was just thinking that he looked too smug to be Harry when I saw your edit :)