Harry Potter Wands Art Harry Potter Wands Concept Art

Wand design is a key role of the Wizarding Earth's visual worldbuilding, from the redesigns in Prisoner of Azkaban to the 1920s wands of Fantastic Beasts. On this page of the Wandmaker'due south Notebook, we'll look at how the wands have evolved over fourth dimension, and explore the role artists and prop makers play in this evolution.

How did we get from this...

...to this?!

Our exploration begins with the books.

In the illustrations by Us commencement edition artist Mary GrandPré, the wands are fatigued every bit nothing more a long, thin, simple stick - uniform down their entire length, with no discernible handle. They are not unique to private characters, nor physically differentiated from each other in any manner.

For the start edition Uk covers, wands are seen only on the children'southward edition of Harry Potter and the One-half Blood Prince. Both Harry and Dumbledore are shown with identically looking wands, just unlike their US counterparts, they are shorter, thicker, and wavy, with a conspicuously defined tip.

This uncomplicated blueprint can be establish in other pre-flick trade, like the trading carte game, posters, journals, pop-upwards books, and the similar. (How many readers are old enough to remember these?) These illustrations, by a number of different artists, generally autumn somewhere between the calibration of "long straight rod" and "short wavy pointy stick," but all of them are plain and clearly wood.

By adding handles, the films introduced an overall look for the wands that has become iconic.

During production of the showtime film, the responsibility of creating the wands fell on the art department. InThe Fine art of Wand Work,included in The Wand Collection: Collector's Edition published by Insight Editions, head prop maker Pierre Bohanna recalls why the offset wands were kept simple:

"For the beginning film, we probably made ii dozen sample wands all in completely different styles . . . to show J.K. Rowling. At that place were some like roots with crystals tied on the ends, some with metal castings, through to crazy, Baroque-manner wands with gilding on them. Loads and loads of different types of interpretations of what a wand should be - correct down to fairly simple, straightforward, turned precious forest versions. And she went for the very uncomplicated wands."

The filmmakers stuck to this simple aesthetic, though unlike the books' cover art, exercised some artistic creativity to give each graphic symbol's wand a few distinguishing traits. Compare Harry'southward, a simple brown wand with a slim handle, to Hermione's, a 2-color wand with a white handle and wider pommel.

"[J.K. Rowling] was adamant that a wand was just like an old stick. So we tried to keep them simple." - Hattie Storey, Art Director

In fact, these wands greatly resemble orchestra conducting batons of the 19th and 20th centuries (a fact that will come up back into play later, when we look at the wands of Fantastic Beasts). Take a expect at these batons used by the groovy conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957).

Is it possible that one of the intricate prototype wands found their manner into the films anyway?

In an interview with HelloGiggles, Professor Flitwick actor Warwick Davis describes the offset wand he was given:

"I have two different wands in Harry Potter. In the showtime two films, when I played the older looking Flitwick, I had quite an intricate wand that consisted of many different materials. It was wood and it had a kind of pearlescent handle and then a kind of brass tip, and the brass tip connected with your manus."

If you lookout the Wingardium Leviosa scene, y'all can run into him holding it! Whether information technology was indeed a image, or created afterwards in spite of J.K. Rowling'due south insistence on simple wands, nosotros won't know for sure... unless Pierre or Hattie decide to spill the beans, that is.

Along came Prisoner of Azkaban, and with it, a new director, new costumes, new sets, and of course - new wands.

Merely why were the wands changed?

"[Managing director Alfonso Cuarón ] idea that the other wand [from the starting time two films] lookedtoo smooth, like it was from Ikea." - Daniel Radcliffe (A Conversation With J.K. Rowling 47:24)

"Alfonso Cuar ó n was quite keen on the actors choosing their ain wands, so a selection of wands was designed past the art department, and so Pierre [Bohanna] fabricated eight or ten or so and the actors could choose whichever i they wanted." - Hattie Storey, Art Director

Highly detailed carvings and plainly sticks

The third flick represents the transition betoken betwixt the elementary sticks of Stone and Bedchamber, and the highly detailed, conceptual designs that followed Gobletof Burn down and beyond. These wands saw aslight divergence from J.K. Rowling's preference for evidently, simple sticks of woods. The redesigned wands of Prisoner and their predecessors accept a few things in common, and several notable differences:

Common features

Wood* - no metal inlays, no os. The only exceptions are Professor McGongall's wand, which has a very subtle glass tip on the handle, and Professor Flitwick's wand, which was discussed above.
Directly, adequately plain shafts

Differences

Old wands are turned, i.due east. rotational symmetry. New wands have carved details (Hermione'due south vines, Sirius's runes) that suspension the symmetry.
Handles take on new shapes (Ron'south and Lupin's bulb-similar handles)
Natural, organic textures (handle of Harry's and Ron'south wands)

*The chief re-create of each wand was created in forest, but copies for filming were made with resin, or safety for stunt work.

The wands that didn't change

Though Harry's and Hermione's wands have a new look, they are canonically the same Holly and Vine wands every bit they were before. Similarly, Tom Riddle's wand in theChamber flashback scene is canonically the same Yew wand he wields as Voldemort inGoblet of Fire, though their on-screen designs are different. Even so, Ron's wand in Prisoner is an entirely new wand (Willow), every bit his quondam one broke in Bedroom.

Other wands, such equally those of Draco Malfoy and Professor Minerva McGonagall, were never redesigned. I don't believe there is an official tally, just it's likely that judging from their designs and their relative importance to the story, background characters like Crabbe, Goyle, and Mrs. Weasley retained their original wands. And of course, characters similar Gilderoy Lockhart who merely appeared in one moving-picture show wouldn't accept an opportunity for their wands to be redesigned at all.

The rising of conceptual designs and not-woods components in Goblet of Burn and beyond

In The Art of Wand Work, Pierre Bohanna goes on to describe the wands made later on Prisoner:

"Subsequently the third film, there was a lot more development of the concept of the wands. Wands from so on were a lot more liberal in their design, which was not bad. This is essentially a stick that's been reinterpreted hundreds and hundreds of times in lots of unlike ways. From simple wands, we went into all sorts of different finishes, incorporating bone finishes, different metal components. . . inlays, crystals, and on and on."

The prop department was moving farther and farther away from J.K. Rowling's initial conception of wands as a "simple stick," simply whether this is good or bad is a affair of opinion. Permit'due south accept a look at some wands as a case study of how non-forest components made their way onto the wands over time.

Dumbledore'south Wand / The Elder Wand

This famous wand makes its first appearance in Goblet of Fire, when the teachers are discussing how to keep with the Triwizard Tournament due to the cartoon of Harry's proper name. Dumbledore deposits a retentiveness into the pensieve, and nosotros become our first look at the Elder Wand.

Its distinctive nodes and white band with runes gear up it autonomously from every other wand seen on screen thus far, and this turned out to be a adept thing. From Harry Potter: Film Wizardry, we learn that "the [Elder Wand] prop is fabricated of English oak, with a os inlay inscribed with runes." For a wand said to have been created by Death (though the art section would not have known the significance of the wand at the time of creation), a bone inlay is certainly advisable and adds to the intrigue.

Umbridge'south wand

The wand of Dolores Umbridge first appears in Order of the Phoenix and is notable for several different reasons. Information technology is the start wand to contain a precious stone, in this example, separating the handle and shaft. It has a highly busy shaft, whereas those of wands seen up to this bespeak have, for the most office, been mostly smooth and unadorned. Finally, it is one of the only wands in the entire picture franchise to accept its canon length into consideration -an unusually short 8 inches - though the prop itself is longer than that, measuring 10 1/2 inches (27 cm) according to stores that sell the replica.

Slughorn and the politicians

The wands of these characters, Slughorn, Thicknesse, Scrimgeour, and Yaxley, are notable for their inclusion of metal parts.

Slughorn's is by far the furthest from "simple stick of wood" with its metal handle and what looks similar metal inlay on the shaft. The pommel is also an on-the-nose depiction of his name. The politicians' wands retain the unproblematic silhouettes of the early wands of Rock and Chamber but add embellishments fitting their occupations in a manner that contributes to the overall elegant artful without overdoing it.

Other wands notable for containing metal parts are those of Narcissa Malfoy and her husband Lucius, (though the snake head handle on the latter'south is removable, as seen in Deathly Hallows when Voldemort takes it). Lucius's wand is besides the first wand with metallic to announced in the films, in Chamber of Secrets (concealing the wand inside the walking stick was histrion Jason Issacs's idea!).

Snatchers, Death Eaters, and Voldemort: the forces of evil

Oh boy. These wands' designs would fit a lot of tropes (Skeleton Motif, Dress-coded for your convenience, Sinister Scimitar but for wands, just to name a few). Evil-looking wands for evil characters.

At the fourth dimension of Voldemort'due south get-go appearance in Goblet, his wand, with its conceptual bone-inspired blueprint, was the most radical departure from "simple stick" thus far. It is a peachy example of the way the prop department had started to tailor wands specifically for individual characters. Compared to the Death Eater Wands that would appear in the final three films, though, it's actually quite tame!

Of the Death Eater wands, Hattie Storey has this to say (from Harry Potter: Page to Screen):

"[The Death Eaters' wands exhibit] showy aesthetics. Their masks are made out of filigreed silver, and their costumes are quite intricate, so the idea was that they show off with their wands also."

In the entire 8-film series, these wands are the furthest they've ever been from "simple wooden stick," featuring thorns, carved skulls, fauna heads, and other evil and fancy motifs. In contrast, the blackthorn snatcher wand is pretty much the reverse, and has a very organic look. Given that Harry has to use it, it mustn't be too evil, later on all!

Advertizement

A quick detour to the phase: the wands of Cursed Child

Presumably, this means she approves of them, but whether she had any input during the blueprint process itself is not articulate. Cursed Child set designer Christine Jones, who won an Olivier Award for her piece of work on the play, designed Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter's wands. For all these wands, the influence from the films is potent, with their defined handles and unique shapes. Based on promo photos of the cast, the wands appear to exist made of wood, and exercise not seem to take any metallic or non-forest accents. Information technology's back to basics, and if I'one thousand honest, quite refreshing.

Fantastic Beasts jumps back in time...but the wands become fancier.

We're merely 2 movies into the five planned, only we've already seen a bound in the fashion the wands are designed and fabricated. Many of the wands take inspiration from the time period, a factor non nowadays inPotter. In an interview with The Leaky Cauldron, Pierre Bohanna has this to say:

"The interesting thing every bit far as wand blueprint'southward concerned is an application of period as well. It's a not bad flow in time where in an artistic sense there is a lot of liberation and a sort of rethinking of styles, et cetera, and it actually kind of shows."

In theHarry Potter series, non-wood accents were uncommon. The opposite is true inFantastic Beasts, with metal accents, shell inlays, and even crystals everywhere - certainly a far cry from "just similar an old stick." Tina and Newt's wands, with their understated designs and wood construction, are now the exception to the rule. Fifty-fifty with all the "liberation" and "rethinking of styles," going on, at least the prop department hasn't entirely forgotten J.Grand. Rowling's original vision for what wands ought to be.

Queenie Goldstein's wand

For the start time, we run across mother-of-pearl used as major component, alongside a metallic accent. Withal, the mother-of-pearl, at to the lowest degree, is canon, as the North American wandmaker Johannes Jonker was known for using it in inlays. The shaft is unproblematic, made of rosewood, and hearkens back to the early wands, but the cute handle takes inspiration from Art Deco.

Percival Graves's wand

In an interview with Pottermore, junior concept designer Molly Sole reveals that Graves's wand (top photo) was based on an antique conductor'south billy. (Meet, I told you it would come up again!) A cursory Google search reveals a smattering of ebony and silver batons (bottom three photos) from diverse antique auction sites. It's unlikely Graves'due south wand was based on any particular 1 of these, but the influence is obvious. Here we take another example of period pieces providing inspiration to the prop department, and some other example of metal accents taking center phase.

Seraphina Picquery's wand

Male child oh boy. This wand. The crystal hither is much more prominent than in Umbridge'due south wand, and metal accents take never been this fancy. Though the shaft is uncomplicated, like Queenie'due south wandthere'due south non a speck of forest in the handle - might as well make it removable like Lucius Malfoy'due south!

Is this the direction the films will go on to get? Will we keep to see more metal, more than crystal, more vanquish? Will the wands come full circumvolve and wind upward like the prototypes that J.Chiliad. Rowling rejected? Nosotros tin can only look and discover out.

Do you like the style the wands take evolved? Share your favorite wand from the films or the play, and tell us why you similar it!

See y'all on the next page,
Maranda

pantojaspont1950.blogspot.com

Source: https://blog.praeclaruswands.com/2019/03/evolution-of-wand-designs-harry-potter.html