In 2014 I decided to paint my first piece of Harry Potter fan art. I did it solely for myself; I was heavily into mixed media painting and art journalling at the time, and wanted to branch off into something different. I’ve had a huge love for the Harry Potter story since I picked up the first book in the late ’90s. (Has it really been that long already?)
I thought it would be fun to create a piece that had the Marauder’s Map and the quote to magically hide the contents, “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.”
In my original painting, the canvas was 12″ x 17″, slightly larger than the version I sell online and at markets. The map itself is hand drawn and distressed using a mixture of watercolour paints and mica to make it a bit sparkly. The map was a challenge to figure out its fold pattern, but it is folded in a simpler way to the larger version of the map from the movies/books. It seems so simple now compared to the full map that’s used in my current version of this painting.
I hand mixed the signature twilight blue paint colour for the background. This colour matches the undertones of the movies with its nearly-black-but-still-blue-hue. I applied modeling paste to add texture, and sprayed overtop the entire background with a spattering of sparkly mica paint mist.
All of the lettering is hand-drawn and hand-cut from cardstock painted gold. I only expected to make one of these, after all. The wand is made of hand wrapped and glued kraft paper, and painted with custom mixed paints to simulate a wood tone.
The piece is finished off around the edges with some gold paint and a sprinkling of wood star-shaped embellishments.
I posted the finished artwork to my social media profiles, and something happened I was NOT expecting. People wanted one of their own!
I made additional paintings to fill orders, but never did I expect that nearly a decade later I’d still be selling my Harry Potter Marauder’s Map painting to other fans. I’ve created a slightly different version to keep the piece affordable for everyone, but the new one has a complete, miniature version of the full map!
Here it is nine years later, and I’ve sold hundreds of these paintings over the years. I could have never imagined this happening, and I’m so grateful. But I kept my original painting, and it sits on a bureau in my upstairs hallway now as a constant reminder of how it all started.
I hope you love this painting as much as I do. Check out my Harry Potter Marauder’s Map painting in my shop!
