Character Portrait: Neville Longbottom

First, I put in some book one updates a while back (that page is here), but there’s one drawing I’ve since found that I wanted to add, which is a beautiful depiction of Hagrid’s hut, drawn by a new artist named RavenclawRadiance. It’s in PS15.

The rest of the new drawings are all from book two. If you’re inspired to see them in context, you’re encouraged to read through the full book! But I’ve also posted them to the artists’ pages, of course. They come from four different artists:

First, there’s a professional illustrator named Felicia Cano who I’ve had my eye on for some time, and who has graciously consented to allow her Harry Potter-themed work to be used here. You can visit her page to see the first three drawings I’ve posted here (Lockhart, Sprout, and Percy), and I assure you that more will be coming soon;

Second, the incomparable Keith James is still chugging along with his one-drawing-per-chapter project, and has finished drawing Chamber of Secrets. I’ve added quite a few new drawings of his, which you can also see on his page (everything from CS7-on is new);

Third, yet another lovely new artist named Jess Siswick has contributed two drawings, with more to come in the future;

And finally, I’ve added a new drawing of the trio from one of this site’s all-time favorite artists, gerre. You can see it on the page for CS13.

Hope you enjoy! And there will be comments open in this thread for a while, so feel free to reach out to me here. :)

–John

Harry Potter Off Camera: The Aftermath

The extremes of emotions in those times are really appealing from an artistic perspective, and the artwork absolutely lives up to them. So I hope you enjoy!

So I thought I’d continue the “Harry Potter Off Camera” series. I’d already published a collection of drawings from the Marauder era (up through Harry’s birth) and the Potter family (from Harry’s birth through his parents’ death). But this left a gaping hole – where can we see artists’ interpretations of the years of Harry’s childhood? Here’s your answer:

Harry Potter Off Camera: Growing Up

This completes the “Before the Books” section of Off Camera; I’d wanted to do a series on the pre-Marauder era as well (Voldemort and McGonagall growing up, for instance) but there just isn’t enough material. Instead that can eventually be folded into the character pages.

Finally, a couple more quick site updates, too: I’ve closed most comment threads but set them to remain open on new posts and pages for 60 days, so you all will still have the ability to respond to new pages like this one. And I’ve also updated the FAQ to reflect more recent changes to the site.

Thanks as always for reading, and enjoy!

I want to be completely up front about where I am and the future of this site. I spent seven years immersed in the Harry Potter fandom (three as an editor at the Lexicon and four building the HPC), and it was an incredible experience – I met some wonderful people and experienced some some really cool things, and I will always treasure that. The folks who read and commented here were a huge part of that, and I thank you sincerely for it.

Once I finished the main project of this site, part of me always knew that I had completed what I’d once set out to do. It was a massive, massive project and one I’m quite proud of. I’ve also always known that I would want to keep this site active; I still strongly believe that this is one of the only fan sites around that was set up to exist in a post-fandom world. I still hope to update it from time to time, especially as new artwork is created that fits the stories. And I hope that, as new generations grow up who love Harry Potter but never know what it was like to attend a midnight release party, some of them stumble upon this site and get a taste of that experience.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep the site active but disable comments. I hope it’s obvious that I thoroughly enjoyed the comment pages – the site received close to 10,000 comments and I loved the intelligent, thoughtful discussion that we enjoyed in them. But when I am inclined to stop by here, I’d much rather spend my time adding new artwork than diving into comment moderator mode.

Anyway, thank you all so much for participating in this with me. I hope you continue to enjoy it. You can always email me at john@hpcompanion.com. And I’ll still drop by on occasion. I promise. :)

Take care,

John

Among other things I’ve had a backlog of drawings that I’ve been saving to add to the site. These are drawings either that were done after I posted the chapters, or that I found later on in my search. But I’m excited to begin adding them, as I think they will really enhance the chapters I’m adding them to. So I began today with Philosopher’s Stone, and the following pieces:

• Harry entering Diagon Alley in PS5, by new artist Mel Tregonning;
• A beautiful depiction of the first-years on the boats in PS6, by Catching-Smoke;
• The trio plus Neville facing Fluffy in PS9, by MioneBookworm;
• Hermione showing up Ron in Charms in PS10, by Lisa Villella;
• Hermione battling Devil’s Snare in PS16, by thepolestar;
• Ron preparing to face the chess men, also in PS16, by new artist Sahin Düzgün;
• And Hermione discovering the potions riddle in PS16, by MioneBookworm;

Enjoy!

My little boy is now almost two and a half, but our family otherwise looks much the same as the Potters once did. So it’s probably not surprising that the story that this new page tells is one that fascinates me – the sort of thing that makes me want to cry with joy and horror all at the same time. The Potter Family wasn’t a family for long, but they sure left their mark on the world.

Harry Potter Off Camera: The Potter Family

By the way, I appreciate the comments and e-mails I’ve gotten expressing folks’ excitement that I posted a new page again this week. Even as I’ve been updating less frequently recently, the site is still going strong (we’re over 3.5 million page views now), and I can’t thank you all enough. I’m sure I’ll still be in and out over time, but I’m no less determined to finish the projects I’ve started (and I have a new project or two that I’ve been mulling over for when they’re done, so we’ll see how that goes). So, thanks! It’s good to see you all again. :)

It always amazes me how much people love the Marauders – there is so much artwork, and fanfiction, and simple fascination with these characters and the era in which they grew up. I was never the type to think about them much, but I will confess to have enjoyed living in their world for a few days and building one of the most requested pages in the history of this website. Here it is:

Harry Potter Off Camera: The Marauder Years

I also need to welcome a new addition to our team of artists, Iria Abella!

I hope you’re all enjoying your holidays, and have a wonderful new year!

A couple of quick things for those who signed up for early access. First, a dear friend of mine is collecting data on the wand selection and Sorting processes, and for those who have already been Sorted, it would help her out greatly for you to fill out her anonymous survey. Please only do this if you’ve already been Sorted, so her results are meaningful! Here are the links:
Wand questions: tinyurl.com/wand-questions
Sorting questions: tinyurl.com/sort-hat-qs
 

Finally, if anybody is interested in being Pottermore friends, I’d love to see you there! Drop me a comment or an e-mail (john at hpcompanion dot com) with your screen name and your real name (or the name you use on this site) and I’ll send you a request.
 

In the meantime, I am indeed working on my next post for *this* site, which should be arriving soon! Take care….

A month or so ago, however, I was thinking about Fantastic Beasts, and decided to start searching around to see if there might be any artwork out there that I’d simply overlooked. I was surprised and so pleased to discover that well beyond the usual Harry Potter fan art community, there are a number of artists out there who have drawn exclusively the Fantastic Beasts. I went on another art collecting spree, and the result is, I think, a beautiful page of artwork, and a book that lends itself to more insights than I once imagined. So for anybody out there who’s been longing for another new chapter page – here it is! Much more work than the old ones, but I couldn’t be happier with the result. And I hope you feel the same.

Of course, this also means we have several new artists to add to our ranks – so a very warm welcome to Juan Ruben Juarez M., Laura Williams (aka Eudocia), Stephanie Schmidt, and C.W. Bexiga!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them