Art Department

Learn how fan-favourite sets and graphics were designed for their appearances on-screen

Hogwarts Castle Model

The jewel in the crown of the Art Department is the intricately-detailed model of Hogwarts castle. Built for the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the model’s every courtyard, tower and turret were filmed and enhanced with digital effects to create unforgettably realistic views of the magical school. Footage of this meticulously built model was combined with digital effects to create unforgettably realistic views of the exterior of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Graphic Design

The Art Department were responsible for designing and creating thousands of props that helped to bring the visual world of Harry Potter to life on-screen. Graphic design duo MinaLima designed an array of props from potions textbooks to wizarding sweet packaging and issues of the Quibbler. By the end of the Harry Potter film series, they had designed over 40 editions of the wizarding world newspaper, The Daily Prophet. Each copy was aged by dipping it into diluted coffee and left to dry before ironing out the wrinkles.

White Card Models

During the filming process, before the actual set construction began, the Art Department would create a white card model of the set/location. These models helped the Director and Production Designer to look at size and scale and determine camera angles. To plan shots and camera movement, filmmakers inserted a tiny camera called a lipstick camera into the model to get a perfect point of view.

Technical Drawings

Dozens of concept artists, illustrators and art directors created every environment, prop and character on-screen throughout the Harry Potter film series. Each design went through several different iterations as it was tweaked and finally perfected. Led by Production Designer Stuart Craig, the Art Department designed 588 sets across the Harry Potter film series.