If you like Harry Potter, you’re in for a treat. The recent open call I worked on was to create an illustration for J.K Rowling’s new wizarding adventure, The Crimes of Grindelwald, a movie sequel to The Fantastic Beasts.

Having caught the competition bug and armed with my circular signature. I’m  enjoying the challenge of taking on competitions and working on new briefs. They put a burst of thoughtful ideas inside my sketch pad. 

To research the movie I watched the enticing trailer a number of times, each view being more magical than the first. Out of many, the simple scene I choose to illustrate was of Queenie Goldstein walking under an umbrella.

I set myself a challenge by matte painting bricks without the colour block collage. This predictably took a lot longer to complete, but was worth all the effort and pain. It was a bonus to practice on a simple shape. I used a hard brush to place a base colour and layered on stipples of dark and light tones to imitate shadows and highlights. With a soft brush I blended together all the colours and added a few fine details.