Hoggywarty 2022: Rejoicing (in the Greenhouse)
This year, I didn't have any holidays around Christmas and New Year, and I felt it! I rarely manage to look at and comment on all hoggywartyxmas entries before the reveals, but this year it was worse than ever. I didn't even manage to finish my gift knitting on time (that's another story). So today is January 12 and I still have ... half? ... of this year's entries to read and comment on.
Of the gifts I have perused so far, these are my particular favourites:
Endings and Beginnings by delphipsmith
Characters:Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Augusta Longbottom, Madam Pince, Portrait!Dobby, OC's
Wordcount: 9000
Rating: Gen
Summary: An ancient mystery and a modern one: do they hold one another's answers?
I particularly love how this tale tackles the thorny questions surrounding House Elves and their serfdom. It's interesting, clever, fairytale-like and, to top it all off, fun to read. Headcanon fully accepted!
Only Technically Dead by themightyflynn
Characters: Severus, Minerva, Rosmerta, Kingsley, Filius
Wordcount: 6368
Rating: PG
Summary: A mishap with the Ministry filing system may turn into something more than just an annoyance for Severus. Especially if Minerva has anything to say about it.
Okay - the starting point of this story is absolutely brilliant, and the story lives up to the thing something wonderful. It has a great Snape (with many racing thoughts), a truly redoubtable Minerva and a delightful Kingsley Shacklebolt. I don't know how often I laughed out loud while reading this, but when I wasn't laughing, I was grinning.
The Headmaster's Closet by cabepfir
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Wispy
Art
Wordcount: 342
Rating: G
Summary: Professor Snape owns everything he needs.
MY GIIIIIIIIFT! I adore it 1000%! It ticks all my boxes!
I'm going to try and read some more tomorrow, and keep my fingers crossed that RL in the form of cats vomiting ALL OVER my bed (damage: washing, cleaning, having to take the duvet to a laundrette because it's too big to fit inside my machine) or my printer yielding up the ghost (damage: having to drag an MFC across the city by public transport, within remarkably restricted opening hours) stops interfering with my plans.
My own entry was this illustration in the aftermath of dreamy_dragon73's story The Longest Night - which happened to be my Hoggywarty gift last year!
I'm actually quite proud of this one. It was a disaster until a few hours before it was done... I had no idea how to set this scene and how to fit five characters into it. I ended up sketching 4 of them on my tablet, and Minerva on paper, and then I fed the individual sketches into Photoshop to try and arrange them plausibly. Then I had to try and find a way to minimise the perspective drawing of the greenhouse, because I am still absolutely hopeless at perspective and it would take me days to figure out something mildly plausible, with no guarantee of success. So I saved my sorry behind by putting in lots and lots of plants.
It was only when I started inking that I knew I was on to something. At this point I started sending TRS daily updates because the deadline had flown by. I saved a scan of the inked drawing in case the watercolours failed entirely. And then I broke out my Cotman watercolours that I hadn't used for ages because all the colours in it somehow got rejected by the teachers of the watercolour classes I have taken, mostly because a) half of them aren't transparent and b) several of them aren't single-pigment colours, and c) I usually make mud with them. I had been taking yet another class, in which the teacher used the exact same Cotman set, and her colours looked JUST FINE. That is when I finally realised that all the transparent, single-pigment paints of the world can't save a bad artist.
I also found this video on YouTube that stressed how IMMENSELY IMPORTANT it is that a layer of watercolour is quite, quite dry before you add another layer. The teacher said to touch it instead of just looking at it, and not to add a new layer if there was even a hint of clamminess. So that's what I did, and lo and behold, my student grade, non-transparent and multi-pigment watercolour set helped me produce bright colours that don't even clash.
I thought: "I've finally done it. I can watercolour."
Then, of course, full of new-found confidence I broke out my watercolours again on Snape's birthday and produced... THIS:
You don't want to know how many layers this thing has, but believe me, it wasn't going to take much more, and I didn't manage to make any colour look the slightest bit dark, or create any contrast whatsoever, and some of the pigment came off.
In other words: 'Rejoicing' was a fluke and I... really can't do watercolour except by accident.
Of the gifts I have perused so far, these are my particular favourites:
Endings and Beginnings by delphipsmith
Characters:Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Augusta Longbottom, Madam Pince, Portrait!Dobby, OC's
Wordcount: 9000
Rating: Gen
Summary: An ancient mystery and a modern one: do they hold one another's answers?
I particularly love how this tale tackles the thorny questions surrounding House Elves and their serfdom. It's interesting, clever, fairytale-like and, to top it all off, fun to read. Headcanon fully accepted!
Only Technically Dead by themightyflynn
Characters: Severus, Minerva, Rosmerta, Kingsley, Filius
Wordcount: 6368
Rating: PG
Summary: A mishap with the Ministry filing system may turn into something more than just an annoyance for Severus. Especially if Minerva has anything to say about it.
Okay - the starting point of this story is absolutely brilliant, and the story lives up to the thing something wonderful. It has a great Snape (with many racing thoughts), a truly redoubtable Minerva and a delightful Kingsley Shacklebolt. I don't know how often I laughed out loud while reading this, but when I wasn't laughing, I was grinning.
The Headmaster's Closet by cabepfir
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Wispy
Art
Wordcount: 342
Rating: G
Summary: Professor Snape owns everything he needs.
MY GIIIIIIIIFT! I adore it 1000%! It ticks all my boxes!
I'm going to try and read some more tomorrow, and keep my fingers crossed that RL in the form of cats vomiting ALL OVER my bed (damage: washing, cleaning, having to take the duvet to a laundrette because it's too big to fit inside my machine) or my printer yielding up the ghost (damage: having to drag an MFC across the city by public transport, within remarkably restricted opening hours) stops interfering with my plans.
My own entry was this illustration in the aftermath of dreamy_dragon73's story The Longest Night - which happened to be my Hoggywarty gift last year!
I'm actually quite proud of this one. It was a disaster until a few hours before it was done... I had no idea how to set this scene and how to fit five characters into it. I ended up sketching 4 of them on my tablet, and Minerva on paper, and then I fed the individual sketches into Photoshop to try and arrange them plausibly. Then I had to try and find a way to minimise the perspective drawing of the greenhouse, because I am still absolutely hopeless at perspective and it would take me days to figure out something mildly plausible, with no guarantee of success. So I saved my sorry behind by putting in lots and lots of plants.
It was only when I started inking that I knew I was on to something. At this point I started sending TRS daily updates because the deadline had flown by. I saved a scan of the inked drawing in case the watercolours failed entirely. And then I broke out my Cotman watercolours that I hadn't used for ages because all the colours in it somehow got rejected by the teachers of the watercolour classes I have taken, mostly because a) half of them aren't transparent and b) several of them aren't single-pigment colours, and c) I usually make mud with them. I had been taking yet another class, in which the teacher used the exact same Cotman set, and her colours looked JUST FINE. That is when I finally realised that all the transparent, single-pigment paints of the world can't save a bad artist.
I also found this video on YouTube that stressed how IMMENSELY IMPORTANT it is that a layer of watercolour is quite, quite dry before you add another layer. The teacher said to touch it instead of just looking at it, and not to add a new layer if there was even a hint of clamminess. So that's what I did, and lo and behold, my student grade, non-transparent and multi-pigment watercolour set helped me produce bright colours that don't even clash.
I thought: "I've finally done it. I can watercolour."
Then, of course, full of new-found confidence I broke out my watercolours again on Snape's birthday and produced... THIS:
You don't want to know how many layers this thing has, but believe me, it wasn't going to take much more, and I didn't manage to make any colour look the slightest bit dark, or create any contrast whatsoever, and some of the pigment came off.
In other words: 'Rejoicing' was a fluke and I... really can't do watercolour except by accident.