The Sleeper's Den

Hahaha everything went so wrong! I made a complete and utter mess of the watercolours on this piece, and that's after I had drawn another birthday picture that had a glaring mistake in the lettering! I had to try and save this one in Photoshop and ended up finishing it on January 10 -_-.

Ah well.



Happy birthday, Professor Snape! And who knows, maybe I'll get back to my Comic of Doom someday and explain all about Brynhild Bromley.

So! I don't think that a lot of us had a great 2020, most of us for obvious pandemic reasons. Personally, I ran into my own limitations (I still have the bruises) and I learnt a lot about myself. I haven't been in a good place, and not being able to meet people who are dear to me hasn't helped. It was therefore great to see at least one familiar event return in the shape of hoggywartyxmas - a fest that has been going on for 11 years now and is as much part of my Christmas traditions as the Christmas tree and what should have been the family dinner. I think that for many of us, the fest had even more significance this year and the sense of community was even stronger. My heartfelt thanks to therealsnape and kellychambliss for giving us this ♥.

I still have some catching-up to do, but here are a set of entries I much enjoyed and recommend:

By the Fireside by cabepfir
Rating: G
Characters and/or Pairings: Minerva/Severus
Summary: A quiet afternoon together
Warnings: None
(It's difficult not to rec a cabepfir piece, because her sense of colour and atmosphere are brilliant and she is the Queen of All Watercolour. Also: her Snape. Plus cutiepie cat.)

What Minerva Did Next by hiddenhibernian
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,100
Characters and/or Pairings: Minerva McGonagall, Augusta Longbottom
Summary: Of magic, witches and whisky, and why there are no female Dark Lords (that you know of, anyway).
Warnings: None
(This was my gift, right up my alley - I find it almost philosophical :). Minerva's understanding of magic grows, and with it her dissatisfaction with the magical community as it is. She begins to consider taking action, and talks it over with Augusta Longbottom. Don't expect flashy action, but enjoy the musings of two sharp witches.)

To All a Good Night by delphipsmith
Rating: G
Word Count: ~5500
Characters and/or Pairings: Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank, Poppy Pomfrey, Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, Madam Malkin; brief appearance by Hagrid and mention of Malfoys
Summary: Just when things seem dark as a crow's wing, life takes a lucky turn.
Warnings: None
(I'm going to let you discover Delphi's puns for yourself. This story made me laugh out loud every few lines. Basically this is "magical covid takes the Wizarding World". Having lived through this non-magical covid year, I wasn't sure that I would be able to laugh at it, but - I was. I hope you are too.)

Death and Love and Other Yuletide Mysteries: A Hogwarts Castle Story by milotzi
Rating: G
Word Count: 7244
Characters and/or Pairings: Minerva McGonagall and an assorted cast of Hogwarts staff and friends
Summary: Hogwarts Castle as Blandings meets snowbound country house mystery.
Warnings: It’s a Yuletide tale, yet you may discover an easter egg or two or three if you like reading crime mysteries.
(I have a weakness for pastiche. I couldn't write one to save my life, but I so enjoy it when other people prove they can. This was a good one, and I just adore this ironic, knowing 30s style of writing.)

Within a Forest Dark by squibstress
Rating: soft R
Word Count: 9,725
Characters and/or Pairings: Severus Snape/Minerva McGonagall
Summary: Severus expects his journey at Hogwarts to be dark and lonely. He’s right. Mostly.
Warnings: None.
(Squibstress promises 'snark' and 'bitching'. What else can one want from a Severus/Minerva story? ;P An excellent tale with great characterisation and strong dialogue to entertain you even if you don't ship SnacGonagall.)

The Unofficial Minutes of the Hogwarts Knitting Society by therealsnape
Rating: G
Word Count: 14K
Characters and/or Pairings: Irma Pince with a supporting cast of Hogwarts Staff Members. Also, the owner of a knitting shop.
Summary: When Gilderoy Lockhart announces his plan for motivational lectures that will bring the fun back into teaching, his colleagues have to do something. But who would have thought it would involve needles and yarn?
Warnings: None.
(I have two words for you: WITCHES and KNITTING. Truly a magical combination?! Well, it was for me. Minerva McGonagall sets up a knitting club that must save its members from attending lectures by Gilderoy Lockhart. This leads to Ravelry Revelations. Don't be scared of the word count: this story doesn't at all *feel* like 14K, it's that good a read.)

Season’s Greetings from Hogwarts! by mywitch
Rating: PG
Characters and/or Pairings: Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Irma Pince
Summary: The Hogwarts Faculty tries to keep it together for the annual Yule card photo.
Warnings: Tiny bit of full frontal nudity ;)
(mywitch is one of these people who can't hide their identity in an anonymous fest because they just ... are who they are? She is amazingly versatile and can, I think, do just about anything. But even though she uses a variety of styles and media, you can always tell it's her because of the unique combination of technical brilliance, creativity and mischief in her entries. Treat yourself to this animated postcard. Do not consume beverages while watching.)

Here endeth the reccing!

So, as we've had the reveal last Saturday, I can quite openly claim authorship of The Gift, a very silly 5-page comic:

The Gift
Rating: Ummm... PG for a word you don't want your child to repeat?
Word Count: 168
Characters and/or Pairings: Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore
Summary: The year is 1993, and the presence of one Mr Remus Lupin at Hogwarts means that this isn't the Potions Master's favourite Christmas ever. Maybe, just maybe, Minerva McGonagall can lift his gloom.
Warnings: Rude language

I want to share some behind-the-scenes information about this little comic because it's special for me. If you're interested, I'd advise you to read the story first and then come back for the making-of, which I'll put in a separate entry.

Posting now, after a turbulent trajectory ;)!


I'm really pleased with this, even though it shows all of my typical shortcomings (I don't *really* know where I ought to be putting shades, everything sort of floats and I have serious problems with creating depth of any kind - I circumvented perspective a bit so that's less of a problem here). I can't do anything complex in digital colouring, but I do like where these simple colours get me. This is probably the best level I'm capable of with digital colouring, mind - but I like it. I'm thinking I should probably switch to digital for the shading in my comic, because it would look sort of neat and I could correct mistakes. But it would take me more time to finish my pages, and i'm already amazingly slow, so I guess I should have a think on that ;). 

This little painting was made specifically for everyone to whose kind comments I failed to reply in a timely manner in ... January. All through November, December and January, I worked very hard on a specific project at the office that took up most of my time and energy. But other people were busy too, and they replied to their fest comments. So it's me. I am unforgivably disorganised, and at the end of last year and the beginning of this one, it was worse than ever. 

I didn't get round to replying, and as the weeks stretched into months, the situation became more and more embarrassing and ridiculous. But the matter never sat well with me — not least because of how much these comments mean to me. So I wanted to apologise with a small gift, on the next gift-giving occasion. 

Please, dear reviewer, accept my sincere apology and this Easter egg. I hope you can forgive me for having been such a rubbish fest participant.

Happy birthday, Severus Snape!

Because all my plans for birthday drawings have gone awry, on the occasion of Snape's birthday I'm going to dig up what used to be an old favourite and share my comic-making process. Does anyone remember "How Not To Draw Comics"? I did these entries where I documented the making of my first ever complete comic in 18 pages - which was, would you believe it, a Snape comic. I worked on it for years, mostly because I drew a page whenever I felt particularly inspired - which, seeing as we are talking about me, Little Miss No Idea, wasn't very often. My way of working was incredibly chaotic.

Ten years or so later, nothing much has changed.

The reveals for hoggywartyxmas are up, so I can now officially admit to having created Great Balls of Snow. (Being me, I'd actually put my NAME on the title card. I was so very tired at that point I didn't even realise I'd sent a SIGNED entry to an anonymous fest! D'oh!) I have to say, I had a ball working on this thing. It wore me out completely, but boy, was it ever so much fun. However, I felt very bad about it, because I missed two deadlines and was afraid therealsnape would start to think I was a total flake or something. No. I'm just chaotic and slow. (Not when I'm doing my job! Seriously. But when I'm making comics and stuff... Ack.)

Anyway -

Below the cut: lots and lots of images! Lots and lots of sketchy Snape! Developing ideas! Rubbish! If you're interested, and you haven't read the comic yet, I'd say, read it first. It's complete in 41 panels (not pages - just panels), here at Hoggywarty or on Tumblr if you like. And then come back for the Making-Of :).

( How Not To Draw Comics - Great Balls of Snow )

Well, that was the story of that comic. It eventually got done and TRS accepted it. And all was well ;).

Beardless Snape and Brynhild. I have to say, I feel slightly ashamed for persisting with the dreaded Snape/OFC, even in my more mature years, but seriously, Snape and Brynhild do belong together in my head and I really can't think of any more comforting scenario. Probably because my imagination is very limited.

Well here are some Snapes (+ one Brynhild) that I drew for Inktober. Those are days 9, 11 and 13.







...They're not as nice as Day 4, but I'm not finding it easy to come up with something good every day XD. Little Snape portraits are my drawing equivalent of comfort food, so as I try to keep up with Inktober, now and then I take recourse to these simple things.

Can't explain why, but this one is kinda dear to me.

I have trouble believing that Tobias Snape ever called his son by that outlandish name of Severus. So in my headcanon he refers to Severus as "young 'un" - which I like very much because it happens to sound almost exactly like "jongen", which is the Dutch word for boy.

On a side note, while it seems quite clear to me that Severus was a neglected child, I don't think his parents are entirely to blame for his strange getup. It looks too much like a child's attempt to dress in a wizard's robes and cape.

I have vivid memories of playing Sheriff of Nottingham in a tunic made of an old tablecloth, a cape made of an old curtain, a number of my mother’s vividly-coloured silk scarves and a pair of white suede boots that were several sizes too large. In my head I looked great in them, but my mum was invariably mortified when she discovered I’d actually left the house dressed like that. It was only the expression on my mother's face that ever made me realise that I didn't quite look the way I imagined I did.

Oooh, what an exciting time to be back in fandom! Having signed up for hoggywartyxmas, I saw that snapecase is making a return too! Squee! I wish the sign-ups were open already! *dances*


snapecase: Celebrating Severus Snape throughout his ages!

Meanwhile, have a piccy. As you can see, no pencils were harmed in the making of this, because it was drawn directly with ballpoint pen in my notebook, hence the wonky chair and - all the other wonkiness. I hope to post some stuff from art school to show how I have been getting on - you'll see we haven't been doing perspective yet ;).



This is where I am with my imagining Snape's life after the Battle of Hogwarts. He has spent 20 years visiting all known (and some unknown) wizarding schools and has been studying magic intensively. Now he is ready to carry out his masterplan of founding a wizarding university. Desmond Avery has been using his network to raise funds, and Brynhild has been concentrating on drawing up the statutes and looking into the legal and organisational side of things.