My sister and I grew up in a pretty artistic family.  My mom and dad both paint and have always been very creative.  So today, I thought I’d share a little project of my dad’s….

I learned to paint and draw when my mom started showing me how to draw shapes and make people when I was still learning to walk.  I get so much of my encouragement and imagination from her.  And I get a lot of my furious, frenetic, constant MAKING from my dad, who was always knee-deep in a project or two, always creating, always building, always doing SOMEthing.  (Sounds very familiar!)

A few years ago, my dad got into building garden trains.  He had fun setting up the track, but also building the structures for the cities and towns in his train village.  At one point, before they moved, he had worked on a Harry Potter’s Hogwarts castle to add at the back. The old town below included Diagon Alley, Hagrid’s, and the Weasley’s.  He even included a few fun things with the  people…

Awhile back, my parents moved to a new home, and my dad started up a new train village.  He built each structure by hand, from sheets of styrofoam and thin pieces of wood, coating them in liquid cement, and then painting and decorating them (often with the help of my mom’s awesome decorative painting skills).

They’re pretty good-sized structures, too–here are our two dogs–a fully grown Boston Terrier and Boxer, who love to sniff around town. (Thankfully, they haven’t destroyed anything…yet.)

The liquid concrete and coats of varnish keep the structures fairly well-protected from the weather.

As fantastic as dad’s sculptures are, Mom’s painting details are just as amazing!  She creates tiny handpainted murals on some:

After finishing a good chunk of the town, Dad recently decided to try his old Hogwart’s castle again.  But this time, he studied schematics of Hogwarts, looked at reference photos and movie models, and laid out a foundation.  He started by building a styrofoam mountain in the back, up against their patio, adding a water feature as well.

Then he worked on the first building tower, sculpting into the styrofoam and shaping it with wooden pieces.He laid the tiny wooden shingles on the roof one by one, by hand.

Here it is, temporarily mounted on the “mountain”just as a test-run.

Initially, he matched his paint job to a reference he found, which was a lot more rusty orangey brown (the first photo, below).  He sent a photo of it, and asked, and we talked about how although he matched the reference, the FEEL of it in the movie (although the shots of it are often at night) is that it’s mostly grayish.  So he repainted, and it made a WORLD of difference!

Here are some more progress shots of the mounted castle tower, and of coating and painting it.So, fast-forward to several steps later, and HERE is the final Hogwart’s castle!He put lights in them, so the towers glow beautifully at night.

It’s so beautiful and amazing!  If you look closely, you can see these tiny Hogwarts shields I painted for him, with each house emblem on them:

I also customized a few figures for his castle, although they turned out a little wonky. I turned one into Harry, and chopped off Darth Maul’s horns and nose to turn him into Voldemort.

Here they both are, complete (lying next to an adorable heart-holding griffin Myla drew on my work board).

Anyway, there it is!  Dad’s Garden Train Hogwarts castle.Growing up, I knew enough to realize that not everyone’s parents were as creative as mine…but knowing that we didn’t come from a ton of money, I realized that everyone had the capability of being creative.  Seeing something start from small beginnings to something huge and amazing doesn’t always require specific tools or the finest art supplies or the best brushes.  Dad was building stuff when we were younger out of dental floss and twigs!  Really, when it comes down to it, the most important thing you really need is a desire to create!Congrats on your castle, Dad!