MART-601 Lessons

As students are strolling along the hallways, they see a very rushed Professor Rosenquist scurrying by with what seems to be art supplies in her hands and a slice of pumpkin pie that was served today in the Great Hall floating behind her. While some students stare in bewilderment or are giggling at the sight, others are used to her antics. The Magical Art professor runs into the empty classroom and drops various drawing tools on her desk. Taking out her wand and waving it, she distributes the art tools to each seat as well as sheets of parchment from a stack that was previously placed on her desk. After all the supplies are handed out, she gives the wand another wave and the scrolls that were haphazardly hung around the room unroll to reveal drawings of magical creatures, plants, and of the castle. Satisfied with her last minute work, she puts away her wand and plops down in her seat, finally grabbing the plate of pumpkin pie. Students begin to file in the room a few minutes later as Professor Rosenquist is eating the last few bites of her pie. Once everyone is situated, Professor Rosenquist sets the now empty plate on her desk, stands up, and clears her throat to address the class.

Hello students and welcome again to another day in Magical Art! I have to apologize if you saw me earlier in the castle halls. I was simply running late but I couldn’t resist leaving the Great Hall without a slice of that delicious pumpkin pie. I’m sure you understand. Anyway, as you have probably noticed by the supplies on your desk, we will be delving into drawing today, which some of you already do on your assignments.

Think back to the first time you ever drew on anything. This doesn’t necessarily mean on parchment either. It could be in your favorite journal, in the dirt, or even on the wall of your home when you technically weren’t supposed to! What was the drawing of? Was it a stick figure portrait of your family? Perhaps it was simple shapes such as circles, squares, and triangles. Maybe it was a doodle of the family Crup. You may not even remember it because you were so young!

Drawing is one of the oldest forms of expression in human history and it’s one that comes to us naturally, even if we aren’t artistically talented or we don’t view our own quill sketches as visually pleasant. It even precedes the invention of written communication. There’s a reason we learn to draw before we learn how to write the alphabet, and even then, we are technically drawing the letters. Ancient drawings that were used to record events, such as the cave paintings we learned about in Lesson Four, were simplified throughout the years into proto-writing (i.e. the Vinča symbols of where present-day Serbia would be), and then further evolved into writing systems such as Egyptian hieroglyphics or Nordic runes. And for those of you who take Ancient Runes, I’ve heard from a little birdie that you may touch on this briefly next year.

Drawing was also prominently used in medieval manuscripts and also in scientific diagrams. Leonardo da Vinci made several drawings on studies ranging from human anatomy to geology as well as diagrams for his own inventions. Galileo was able to demonstrate Venus’s changing phases. Even Newt Scamander sketched magical creatures himself in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which I’m sure you all own a copy of if you have taken Care of Magical Creatures.

Aside from having a long history, drawing also encompasses a wide range of both uses and areas in art. By definition, drawing is “a form of visual art where tools known as drawing instruments are used to mark a two-dimensional surface.” As we mentioned earlier, this surface doesn’t necessarily have to be parchment, paper, or a canvas, but can also include slightly more unconventional surfaces such as a table, cave, or floor. Drawing instruments are an equally wide assortment ranging from the typical pencil, pen, or quill to pastels, chalk, and charcoal, to even paints and inked brushes. Muggles have even developed ways to draw digitally on machines known as computers which allow easier ways to reproduce copies and share their art. Some of these materials are chosen specifically because of both the texture they give and how they can help the artist’s technique (i.e. charcoal is easier to blend, some cardstocks are more textured than sketching paper, etc).

Now, backing up to my mention of paints as a drawing instrument, here’s where the line between drawing and other art forms gets blurry. Drawing can be used as a tool on its own to prep guidelines (typically freehanded) for artwork that will use another medium in its final form. This can be planning out an art print, or creating guidelines for the portrait of an important person, or even as practice for a final drawn artwork. As some of you already know, this is called sketching. When we use paints, inks, and other pigments as an instrument for our artwork, how we categorize it can get a little confusing. Is it a drawing or is it a painting? Typically, drawings are more concerned with the actual form and outline of the subject and are on one layer, whereas paintings put more focus on colors and textures through building up layers of different tints and shades. A drawing will have more lines and marks while a painting will don smudges and stains. An artist, Muggle or magical, will tend to start with the foreground in a drawing and the background in a painting. However, these are “loose” guidelines and there are always exceptions to the rule! There are paintings that show heavy linework in them. There are drawings that use smudges as an effect to show depth, such as Home Worker by Käthe Kollwitz which is shown on the right. Some drawings also have color through using various colored pencils, inks, and paints. The main differentiator is how the medium is built up in the piece: on a single layer or in multiple layers.

Much like painting and other art forms, there are various types of drawings. You will find that they are very much the same as the painting types we discussed in Lesson Five, but with drawing being a completely different art form, there are a few differences from its painted siblings.

Portrait drawings are about the same as portrait paintings, in which a human subject is typically depicted in a profile, three-quarter, or full face view of the subject. Sometimes there are also portraits that depict animals, such as the animal portrait paintings on the seventh floor of the Grand Staircase or this Acromantula on the left based on Newt Scamander’s sketch for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The main difference of course is that it’s a drawing instead of a painting. Now as you may have noticed, there aren’t any portrait drawings amongst all the paintings in the castle. There’s a reason for this. Magical portrait paintings were the common option for either wealthy wizarding families or well-regarded witches and wizards that were commemorated. Due to the amount of labor spent enchanting several layers of paint, teaching it to act like the subject, and even actually painting the subject, having your loved one immortalized in a portrait could cost you a fortune by the time it’s done. For wizarding families who weren’t as well off, this wasn’t an option. While there is the much more affordable option of magical photography, some families still wanted more than seeing their loved one in a simple animation loop. That’s where magical portrait drawings came in. These drawings served as a mid-range option between a painting and a photograph. Magical portrait drawings don’t take nearly as long as portrait paintings due to it being on a single layer. They are easier to enchant in general since the magic does not have to attach itself to several layers of oil paint, the subject does not need to spend as long to teach the drawing how to act, and they give the subject more range of animation and the ability to speak unlike magical photographs. The only downside is that since there aren’t multiple layers in the artwork, the animation forms placed on magical portrait drawings are nowhere near as complex as the ones used in magical portrait paintings. Subjects in magical drawings can’t leave their frames, they could be restricted to a limited amount of dialogue, and they may not fully encapsulate the personality of the actual person who modeled for the drawing. Commissioned magical portrait drawings are also mainly kept within families, with the artwork hardly ever shown to the public. The only time they are displayed is when the artist is creating the drawings for a collection, and even then not too many are floating around for public view. They aren’t as coveted as magical portrait paintings, and many wealthy wizarding families (often pure-bloods) consider them “subpar” and often relate them to the “poor.” I will say this is quite an unfortunate stigma because portrait drawings are often as beautiful as portrait paintings.

Of course we can’t forget about landscape drawings, which are wide view perspectives of natural scenes but instead of a painting, it’s a drawing. Landscapes weren’t considered to be an “acceptable subject” for a standalone drawing until the 15th century. It wasn’t until the works of Albrecht Dürer at the end of the century was landscape considered to be fully respected as a theme without it referencing other works. We’ll actually be going more into depth on Dürer in the next lesson because while he created fantastic paintings and drawings, his biggest impact on art was actually in printmaking. Another crossover is still life drawings, which again, like the paintings, are drawings where the subject is an inanimate object. These weren’t popular until the 17th century, and since most still life drawings required a lot of blending, sometimes the artwork was in the middle between drawing and painting.

Much like figure paintings, the subject in figure drawings is the human figure. The purpose of these drawings is to show proportions, anatomy, different poses, and the body in movement. Figure drawing is also a stepping stone for learning how a human body is supposed to look and is often used as a tool for other forms of art. While some figure paintings are enchanted, figure drawings are more often charmed with simple animation forms in upper level magical art classes at magical schools or studios that focus primarily on the arts. Enabling the animation forms on figure drawings not only gives students instant feedback on if the movement they portrayed was drawn correctly, but more often than not it usually ends up being their final in a figure drawing class. A familiar example for you Quidditch fanatics is this drawing from Quidditch Through the Ages (illustrated by Tomislav Tomic) of a Seeker reaching for the Golden Snitch. See how the drawing is not focused on her face, but how her body is positioned in mid-movement of her reaching for the Snitch.

Illustrative drawings are typically held in the same regard as illustrative paintings in that they are considered to be less than fine art due to the fact that they explain or adorn media. As I have mentioned before, I do not agree with that statement. Also think of how much more bleak your studies would be if there weren’t any sort of visual representation in your textbooks or courses. Anyway, I shouldn’t go on a rant about it or we will end up running out of time. One of my favorite illustrations is the Fountain of Fair Fortune in the 2008 publication of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which I have included on the left. The detailing in everything from the symbols to the scales to the shading is truly remarkable. Another type of drawing commonly associated with illustrations is caricature, which is the exaggeration of the visual traits of a person or a situation. The exaggeration is often used to create a powerfully suggestive or satirical piece of art. Typically found in publications, caricatures are often used to emphasize subject matter. For example, caricatures can be found all over The Quibbler and are paired alongside their sometimes outlandish articles. Well, “outlandish” depending on who you speak to. Caricatures are also a good way for artists to make quick money. Muggle artists in particular set up kiosks at events, amusement parks, and other tourist attractions where people can pay for a custom caricature of them or even perhaps a significant other. Clearly this isn’t as prevalent in the magical world, but there are a few caricature shops in wizarding villages. One that comes to mind is Clancy’s Crafty Keep in Hogsmeade. For those of you who have never been, they carry various magical art supplies that are pretty affordable, along with caricature services. The caricatures drawn by Mrs. Aerona Clancy aren’t the most elaborate in terms of movement, but sometimes you may catch them waving or giving you a thumbs up.

Well, that is all I have for today! I hope you enjoyed learning about drawing as much as I enjoyed presenting it in an organized format. Even if you came into this knowing quite a bit, I hope you were able to take something away from the lesson. Next week is not only going to be our final subject for the year, which is printmaking, but also when you are going to take your final. Be sure to study up on all that we have learned so far, because it will all be on the test. Also, if you have done any of the Project Hour assignments, be sure to have those on hand as I will be asking for your portfolio. If you only did the written portions of those assignments but want to turn in your work for the portfolio, remember that you will need to go back and do the practical prompts. Written options will not be accepted for your final portfolio. Of course, the final portfolio assignment is extra credit so you are not required to do it to pass the course.

Speaking of Project Hour assignments, you have one today along with a quiz. Be sure to turn those in and I will see you next week!

Lesson written by Professor Serafina Rosenquist