pauraque_bk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pauraque_bk) wrote2003-07-31 01:02 am
pauraque_bk) wrote2003-07-31 01:02 am
three pretty pictures
First, in honor of Harry's 23rd birthday, a GIP.
Second, while I was playing with screen captures on CoS, I realized that Tom Riddle's uniform doesn't have a house badge on it, just the Hogwarts crest. His uniform has other differences too, which makes sense, as it's 50 years old... but it's interesting that the filmmakers went out of their way not to tell us what house Tom was in. I brightened the picture up a bit so it's easier to see. (At first I thought it was a Gryffindor badge, which would have been... odd.)
And third, I've spent some time trying to draw a picture of Remus Lupin... and I've spent some time not having much luck. It's very easy for me to draw what I see, but drawing what I only see in my mind takes some doing. That's why I was so pleased when I finally managed to sketch something yesterday that looks quite a bit like my mental image of Remus. It's unfinished, but the basic features are there.
Second, while I was playing with screen captures on CoS, I realized that Tom Riddle's uniform doesn't have a house badge on it, just the Hogwarts crest. His uniform has other differences too, which makes sense, as it's 50 years old... but it's interesting that the filmmakers went out of their way not to tell us what house Tom was in. I brightened the picture up a bit so it's easier to see. (At first I thought it was a Gryffindor badge, which would have been... odd.)
And third, I've spent some time trying to draw a picture of Remus Lupin... and I've spent some time not having much luck. It's very easy for me to draw what I see, but drawing what I only see in my mind takes some doing. That's why I was so pleased when I finally managed to sketch something yesterday that looks quite a bit like my mental image of Remus. It's unfinished, but the basic features are there.
no subject
But I do think that you've captured that sad, slightly tired, slightly down at heel look that he should have. So you're definitely getting there.
As for Tom Riddle, that's something that struck me very forcibly when reading CoS. How come Harry didn't immediately focus on what house he was in? It's not mentioned at all, and yet the kids are so house-focussed by that point that it seems a very odd omission. If he were obviously identifiable as Slytherin, then you wouldn't have expected Harry to have fallen for his line about Hagrid when he was sucked into the diary's visions. If he were Gryffindor, you'd have expected Harry to have commented on the shock of finding that Voldemort was a member of his house.
And really, if the kids all wore the same uniform without any house identification 50 years ago, with an idiot like Dippett in charge, you'd have thought it less likely rather than more that they'd have acquired such a mark of divisiveness under Dumbledore's headmastership.
But then, I think the house identification is - while a cute visual shorthand - one of the flaws of the films. There's no evidence for it in the books; the impression I got from them is that the kids do all wear identical uniforms, with no magical transformation of ties and pullover stripes when the Sorting Hat has done with them. The robes they wear for Quidditch are undoubtedly in house colours, but then that's an inter-house competition, and you'd expect them to be wearing a team sports kit for it.
Other than that, the most I'd expect is for the prefects of each house to maybe have the house symbol/colours incorporated in their badges, and only then if they mostly only held sway over the kids of their own house.
no subject
Good point about Dumbledore's influence versus Dippet's. I wonder if we couldn't write off individual house identification in the films as a way to highlight the stark division that the Sorting Hat warns about in OotP. JKR supposedly had a lot of creative say in the first film, and it seems to me that costuming would matter. The visuals of something always come off differently, because you're dealing with different kinds of audiences. In a kids' film, prejudice and division have to be visual, I'd say, in order to really drive the point home.
Hmm. Another point to think about. :-)
no subject
Same here. He's defined mostly by contradictions -- the tame werewolf. He's all about internal struggles, which is perhaps what makes him difficult to picture. I think he looks too well-fed in this sketch, and too contented for the age he's supposed to be, but it's good to be making progress.
Your comments on Tom's uniform are pretty much exactly what I was thinking. It does seem strange that Dumbledore would want those signs of division (though it's possible that Dippet put it into effect after Tom's sixth year). Well, all I can say is that that's why the movies aren't canon.