And so begins the month of fan art with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Okay, so totally went random with this week’s Illustration Friday word, Separated. I can’t believe I haven’t done any Harry Potter illustrations yet so here is one! I was thinking about the final battle in the Deathly Hallows when Harry and Voldemort no long have that connection with each other and the Horcruxes are gone. Yep, definitely steered off topic. But I love how this came out.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to draw an armored bear for a while and this week’s Illustration Friday word, Brigade, gave me an excuse! I really liked The Golden Compass and wish they would continue with the movie series. I’m going to play around with some fanart for the rest of the month so be prepared! 

This week’s illustration friday word was ‘beginner’ so I made my piece based on a creation myth of an Earth Diver. It’s a popular myth among native american cultures and coastal civilizations. The common idea is that the world is mostly asleep when life first began, and the earth diver, often depicted as a bird or fish, awakens first. It searches for a suitable place to build land and finally creates the world by digging up mud from the bottom of the ocean. I tried transferring my traditional technique to a more digital one. I also attached a sneak at my children’s book about endangered species, here is an Arowana. Asian Arowanas have recently become endangered due to their popularity with aquariums and asian cultures. They are thought to resemble dragons and the Golden Arowana has been known to sell for over $10,000. Native to southeast Asia their population is being better controlled and protected from international trade. Their environment is also being taken over by humans and the species are also grown on fish farms.