Watercolor of the Month 55: Harry in Ollivander's Wand Shop ("The Sorcerer's Stone")

Emmy Pflugh

Sep 25

It's the last week of the month for September, and within one week away is the first week of October! More autumn leaves, more chilly weather, more pumpkins, sweaters, coffees, and jackets, and you get the autumn season atmosphere, even with November around the corner. Now that today is September 25th, with the first day of October coming soon by next Sunday, it's time for another new Watercolor of the Month, so we cannot conclude September without presenting a new Watercolor of the Month, can't we?

If you have just read the title, then you would be surprised to know that it's officially the 55th Watercolor of the Month! Crazy, I know! That's nuts!

Since we are getting close towards October, with Halloween approaching nearly a month away, I thought it would be fun to re-share a Halloween-themed artwork for this 55th Watercolor of the Month, just to get all pumped up and excited for Halloween for a spooky spirit. And so, the drawing I chose is a fan art illustration of Harry in Ollivander's Wand Shop from the first Harry Potter book called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling.

No doubt that this is one of the most memorable and iconic moments in the history of the Harry Potter stories, as well as for the first novel, The Sorcerer's Stone (The Philospher's Stone in U.K.). Taken from the fifth chapter in the book, Harry and Hagrid were school shopping for Harry to get himself ready to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and according to his list for school supplies, Harry has to buy himself a wand. Where to buy wands for Hogwarts? The best-known place to go and buy a wand is at Ollivander's Wand Shop in Diagon Alley. Harry steps into the shop, where he first meets the wandmaker and owner of the shop, Mr. Ollivander:

An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello", said Harry awkwardly.

"Ah yes", said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work" (Chapter 5, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).

A couple of wands didn't work out well, but it wasn't until Ollivander picked up one special wand that chooses Harry as the right young wizard to own it. Afterwards, the wandmaker shares a backstory of the wand to Harry that it contains magical powers from the tail of a phoenix, but sharing it from another wand, which turns out to be the brother of it, and the wand turns out to be originally owned by Lord Voldemort, the dark wizard who murdered Harry's parents and leaving him with a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead since he was a baby:

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother – why, its brother gave you that scar."

Harry swallowed.

"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yes. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember…I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter…After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great" (Chapter 5, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).

This was the second watercolor fan art to illustrate directly from The Sorcerer's Stone I ever worked on, after I did my very first one, and it was the Christmas fan art of a scene when Harry gets his father's invisibility cloak for Christmas, titled Harry Receives the Invisibility Cloak, done in year 2021. Not only this drawing was the second illustration for the first book, this was also the first artwork to feature the character of Mr. Ollivander, the wandmaker, in which I designed him to make him a bit of a John Hurt animation caricature, whom Ollivander was played by in the 2001 film adaptation, as well as for film adaptations for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

Before starting on working this artwork, I had to draw Ollivander, so I can see him for what he would look like in my 2D animation design. Down below, you can see the image of the first sketch of the character I drew in pen.

Ollivander Drawing Sketch:

This drawing sketch of Ollivander would also be used as a guide to let me draw him in this design to put it into the full drawing later on. But of course, research for Ollivander's wand shop on the internet was used to help me draw the background layout.

I begin with the light sketching of both Ollivander and Harry, and the wand shop background interior layout with the pencil, and when that was finished, I cleaned up the outlines with the ink sharpie pen in black, and then, erasing all the pencil outlines till they're completely gone. Second part of the job on working this project is painting two characters in color, thanks to the magic of the watercolor pencil sets, beginning with coloring, and wet the tip of the paintbrush with water and paint the colors in watercolor medium. And finally, I moved on into painting the background, but the best thing I have to do was color and paint one by one for each part of the shop. The first thing I started with were the packages of wands, the shelf (from the outside), the lamp, Harry's wand's package box, and the dark brown book; and finishing it off were the inside of the shelf and the table.

The project was finished on September 20th, and I posted it on October 5th, 2022. It's been a year since the artwork was completed, which is crazy to know, but it's one of the Harry Potter fan art drawings that I will always be proud with. If you would like to read the full topic of this fan art from last year, you can find it and click it on the link down below.

Next week, on October 3rd, I will be posting the first topic for the month, and I'm excited to share that it'll be on the character drawings of the War Doctor from Doctor Who, also played by John Hurt himself, whom he first appeared in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special called "The Day of the Doctor" from Season 7. If you do not want to miss that upcoming post for next week, you can subscribe to this blog here, The Autistic Animator's Desk to get notified for any of the new topics of my drawings and artwork pieces that are focused on animation. I'm on social media, as well, so you can follow me on Instagram @emmypflugh and Facebook @EmmyPflugh.

Until next time, watch out for owls with letters from Hogwarts!