Harry Potter – Thomas Taylor – Image Source

The illustration I looked at for this exercise was the original cover illustration for Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s stone. The illustration was by illustrator/author Thomas Taylor.

I started with a more detailed drawing based on the illustration, mostly line but with a small amount of shading and I tried to describe the entire image. This drawing is obviously the one that is most clear but with each one I tried to strip the drawing back even further. I really tried to see how far I could take it and have the image still readable.

I drew the image onto A4 paper and looking back over it now I have definitely got the proportions a little off – especially if you look at the train in the background. Using a light box I redrew the illustrations multiple times with less and less detail each time.

The sketches are rough as I tried to use the sketches to describe the shapes and placement of the final illustration rather than perfect each image.

The last drawing is so simple that I think it may be unreadable to a client – its really just outlines of the image. I think the drawing before this one is more successful. You can definitely make it out a lot better – you can make out the boy, the trains and the signs. I think it is definitely more understandable.

This was a really interesting exercise as it made me look at a finished illustration in a different way – I just hope I have interpreted the brief in the correct way.  Not only did this exercise help me think about the structure of an illustration but it also helped me understand how to visually explain an idea to someone else. I have found a lot of the exercises through out this module give a look into how it would be to work with a client and I have found it very interesting – I am definitely keen to learn more about illustration as a profession.