Sketching the Practical Magic house to get warmed up for my next obsession ✨
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My brain started coming up with ideas for a witchy card for winter after reading Practical Magic for the millionth time this past October. The book by Alice Hoffman is one of my favorites, and the film version, though quite different from the book, is definitely on my list of comfort movies.
I often joke about Luna being a witch (“She’s a witch and I’m her familiar”), and I thought she would make a perfect Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock’s character in the movie). Like Sally, Luna is dark haired, serious, and has major magical powers when she wants to use them.
I realized I also knew a light-haired, beautiful, and free-spirited dog that could perfectly represent Sally’s sister, Gillian (Nicole Kidman’s character) — our dog Pippi who passed away a few years ago.
The only time I previously included Luna and Pippi in the same card design was for Twin Peaks in 2022. For that project, I intentionally depicted Pippi separately from Luna, Josh, and myself (in the red-curtained other-worldly waiting room from the series). In the illustration, Pippi is sitting with our other dog, Oski, who also passed away. I wanted to include them while also showing that they were still with us in a different way.
It may be difficult to understand why I had reservations about putting Luna on a card with Pippi and Oski, and I don’t even know how to explain the reason. It just didn’t feel right to me.
A few weeks later, though, I had a dream: I was at my Grandma Chizuko’s house (a setting for a lot of my dreams). Grandma had been dog-sitting Pippi for me (a totally far-fetched scenario) and I show up with Luna. Luna and Pippi instantly begin running around the house and playing together. I cried in the dream thinking, “Of course they would be best friends if they ever had the chance to meet!”