Round 1 - Snape Battle - Entry 1
Get your bad guy mojo on! *dances*
My amazingly talented (and even more-son amazingly obsessed with Snape) friend Mara agreed to celebrate one of our favourite HP characters in a Photoshop battle, so I’m hoping that there is a slew of Snape-themed wallpapers coming this way!
The theme focusing on one character is also modified by a set of rules - each round is going to be inspired by one of our favourite Snape (or Snape-related) quotes, and for each entry there will be a special requirement for the artist.
Here is the description of rounds and the quotes each round will be based on:
Round 1+2
“Course Dumbledore trusts you,” growled Moody. “He’s a trusting man, isn’t he? Believes in second chances. But me — I say there are spots that don’t come off, Snape. Spots that never come off, d’you know what I mean?”
Round 3+4
“I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses...”
Round 5+6
You think he is mistaken? Or that I somehow hoodwinked him? Fooled the Dark Lord, the greatest wizard, the most accomplished Legillimens the world has ever seen?
Round 7+8
Young Severus Snape: She's just jealous. That she's ordinary, and you're special. Young Lily Potter: That's mean, Severus.
Round 9+10
Would you like me to do it now? Or would you like a few moments to compose an epitaph?
Round 11+12
Professor Severus Snape: Look at me... you have your mother's eyes.
So, with the rounds outlined in this master post, this is my first entry to start us off.
My requirement from Mara for this piece: Faces. There have to be at least two shots of a face in the piece! (knowing full well that I love to hide faces and use obscured views of them *humpf*)
It’s been a while since I opened Photoshop, so I kind of went with my basics here and tried a darker piece, more of a general character wall focusing on the darkness behind the quote, the “spots” obviously meaning the Dark mark, which I think serves very well as a metaphor for the distilled evil that is the Dark lord.
For me a huge part of the character and why I love Snape so much is the ambiguity that is combined within him, the evil and darker traits are not being hidden very much and together with the lighter moments of his actions, and the fact that even someone like him was capable of affection, is what makes the person so... human. And Severus Snape, with all his flaws and the struggle to pursue something better (no matter the motives behind it), is extremely human, especially in his darkest moments. I love the motive of being “branded” by the dark mark and the implications it carries, but also the fact that it shows it in a slightly different light. It is (of course) a symbol for being a part of Voldemort’s company, but it also suggests that it could be something that’s not entirely voluntary. The theme goes so well with the character of Snape in my head, because it just highlights the fact that this is a world of greys, and things are not always only black and white.
Original size available here.
And Mara, for your round 2 your requirement is: manipulation! At least a part of the wallpaper needs to be manipulated (it can be a hand, a wand, something small, but it has to be there!).
The battle is on!