Lupin Trying to Stop Sirius (“The Prisoner of Azkaban”, watercolor, 2020)

I hope that everyone had a great Easter in about four days ago, now that we are in mid-week of April! As for today, we got ourselves another new Harry Potter-related topic, featuring a new watercolor drawing I picked it up from an actual scene from J.K. Rowling’s original novel. So what we got here is a full watercolor fan art illustration of Professor Lupin trying to stop Sirius Black, as he was struggling on attempting to grab a hold of Ron Weasley’s pet rat, Scabbers, taken directly from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

            “Sirius, NO!” Lupin yelled, launching himself forwards and dragging Black away from Ron again. “WAIT! You can’t do it just like that – they need to understand – we’ve got to explain -“

            “We can explain afterwards!” snarled Black, trying to throw Lupin off. One hand was still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron’s face and neck as he tried to escape. (Chapter 18, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

The Shrieking Shack scene is definitely the scariest scene of all, even before we get onto to Lupin’s werewolf transformation scene, but this is one of my top favorite scenes in the story, and of all of the best Harry Potter scenes. It’s just absolutely terrifying, spine-chilling, and creepy! Harry and Hermione were now inside of the Shrieking Shack, searching for Ron, after being dragged by a black dog (known as the Grim), but then we finally come to realize that the dog was Sirius Black, who is also an Animagus. Then, Professor Lupin comes in to stop Harry for attempt to kill Sirius, and saving the kids. However, it was revealed that both Sirius and Lupin were actually best friends since childhood, in which Harry and his friends thought that Lupin was going to betrayed them, too. Suddenly, Hermione tells Harry and Ron that Lupin is, in fact, a werewolf, explaining on why he has been missing in classes, and with Professor Snape’s assignment on the werewolf essay, as well. And then, Lupin reveals that the Shrieking Shack was a hiding place to transform once a month, through inside of the Whomping Willow, which was planted the year where Lupin went to Hogwarts. Sirius and Lupin did not want anything to murder Harry Potter, because he is the son of their late best friend, James Potter (a.k.a Prongs). But they knew something that the kids didn’t know about, until Sirius points out to Ron’s rat, Scabbers, who is not what he really is – he is actually a wizard named Peter Pettigrew (a.k.a Wormtail).

Although Harry didn’t believe it, he is still convinced that his godfather killed Peter, and betrayed his parents and getting them killed by Lord Voldemort. However, Sirius tries to explain to Harry that he was mistakingly framed for the crime that he did not committed, and Pettigrew escaped from the blame and transformed into a rat, staying as Ron’s pet for 12 years. How could a rat have a long life span for 12 years? Hmm…good question! Much anger as it hits Sirius really hard, he really wanted to kill Peter, but Lupin didn’t want to put his students in danger, and told Sirius that Harry and his friends need to know the truth, and they must explained everything. I think this is Lupin’s way of saying “Violence never solves anything.”

And of course, the 2004 movie version of The Prisoner of Azkaban, in the exact, same scene, was absolutely amazing to watch! That scene is so scary, and yet, so much surprises. Gary Oldman’s portrayal as Sirius Black was just pure genius! I love how dark and scary he looks, based on his appearance from the book, even when the kids have come face to face with this guy inside of the Shrieking Shack. We Potter fans thought for sure that he was ready to kill Harry! However, in the end, we realized that Sirius is a good guy all along, and he would never think of killing his godson, Harry. And alongside with David Thewlis as Lupin, these two actors were just incredible together, especially whenever Alan Rickman comes in as Snape was awesome!

Who doesn’t like a good scare? 😀

Drawing to Painting the Characters: Lupin and Sirius 

Basically, this was the first time I was able to draw Lupin and Sirius together. But also it was the first time that I got to paint Sirius Black in color. If you may recall, I have posted the first drawing of Sirius Black last October for the second Inktober challenge in 2019, which was the very first Sirius Black fan art drawing that I ever got to work on. You can find it from the previous topic titled, Inktober Drawing #2: Sirius Black (first drawing!!!).

At the beginning of working on this project, the approach of drawing this scene from the book was NOT easy. It was kind of hard for me to picture it in my imagination, particularly on Sirius Black. It wasn’t just his design, it was just difficult to trying to capture his sense of struggling to get away from Lupin, as he was about to grab Scabbers off of Ron’s hands. How can I see it? How can I draw him in that struggle more believable? I think I must of erased the light pencil lines probably two or three times, until I was able to draw Sirius Black in the exact pose, just as you see it in the final concept. For one thing, even though this is the perfect drawing on how I wanted to capture a scene from the novel, I came to realize that I made this drawing (both of the characters) way too big on the page of drawing pad, and there was only half of Lupin’s body drawn on the left side. But no worry, I was able to redo the drawing on another page, keeping the same poses for Sirius and Lupin, but draw them a little bit small. Originally, I wasn’t planning on drawing the background layout of the Shrieking Shack, but then, before I cleaning up the entire drawing with the black sharpie pen, I went back to lightly sketching the layout with the pencil, using the ruler to help drawing the perfect, vertical lines for the wooden walls. That way the viewers can see the drawing coming to life, filled with scenery and two main characters in J.K. Rowling’s beloved story.

Lupin was the first to be getting in color. However, I  only colored half of him on the first night, but completed the rest of half within the next day, and then, I went on to color Sirius, thanks to the magic of the watercolor pencil sets. Later on, I went back and got started on painting these characters in the afternoon. It was really cool to see my drawing of Sirius Black in full color for the first time, in such amazing combinations of gray and black. He has escaped from Azkaban, and so he had to look very scary and frightened, but slightly dark, from the color of black for his messy hair, to his dark and gloomy colors for his skin, and his ragged prisoner costume and cloak in gray and black.

Interior of the Shrieking Shack: Painting Half to Half

After letting the drawing to sit and dry for a while, I went back to work on coloring  the Shrieking Shack. I only colored half of the background layout, because I think I was probably working too hard that I just needed a break from it. On Tuesday, I return to finish coloring the rest of the half of the Shrieking Shack. I was going to paint the half of the layout, which was on Lupin’s side, but then, I thought I’ll just color the rest of half on Sirius’ side first. That way I can painting done, and having to finish the whole project.

If you will noticed the pencils on top of the photograph I took, these were the colors I used for the interior layout of the Shrieking Shack. I did some research of the Shrieking Shack on Google, just to give me some ideas on what colors would I need for certain wooden areas around the room. In the film version, the wooden walls were mixed of gray, black, and brown, but you can see a hint of green; maybe because the interior has been so old and faded, but also damaged and messy, thanks to Lupin from transforming into a werewolf, as a young kid. The four colors I used for my drawing design of the Shrieking Shack inside were black, brown, and yellow-green. I started off with brown first, then using black to darken up into a brownish-gray, and yellow-green, but went back to black again, soon after that. Yellow was used to show a hint of yellow on the window curtains to go along with gray, looking like it’s very old, and nasty, and torn. The floor down below was mixed with light brown for showing dust, but you’ll see bits of brown there, too.

The Scene Comes to Life! Capturing a Scene from the Novel 

And here it is! The characters and the background were drawn in light pencil sketch, cleaned up, colored, and the painted…and then you get magic! After working on this project for my Harry Potter fan art, it just looks amazing to see it in full color. You can just imagined watching these characters coming to life on paper, imagining seeing Professor Lupin trying his best to confronted Sirius by not trying to grab a hold out of Scabbers…or Peter Pettigrew in disguised…and that it’s best that they ought to tell Harry, Ron, and Hermione the whole truth about Pettigrew and the betrayal of James and Lily Potter on the night they were killed by the Dark Lord.

This picture was taken on the day it was completed. Later on, I was able to photographed it again after letting it dry for a few minutes, only without the paintbrush to be seen, so you can see the perfect view of this drawing.

I really liked working on this project, in spite that it was very hard to draw how the scene was going to turn out at the very beginning. All it takes is to develop your greatest imagination. Plus, drawing a Harry Potter fan art, from taken a direct scene from the novel that we never got to see it on film (maybe perhaps in some deleted scenes that were cut), is much fun and very pleasure. Needless to say, that this is one of the Harry Potter fan art drawings that I am certainly very proud of, because like I said, this is one of my top favorite scenes from the 2004 movie version, as well as reading directly in the original novel. That scene is filled with so many surprises, because we get to see and learn more about Harry’s past, including his family who have loved him so much. Hope you’ll enjoy exploring and reading about this wonderful project.

Until next time, hope you guys have a nice Thursday, and I’ll catch up for next time! Be on a look out for Scabbers! :O