SnitchSeeker: We’re here with Mary Grandpre, the great iconic illustrator of the Harry Potter book series. So Mary, How’s it been, being at the Celebration of Harry potter for the first time?
Mary GrandPré: It’s been amazing. I’m just in awe of how many people are coming out to celebrate Harry and this new generation has come into the picture. It’s so cool the way everybody is just coming together. I love it.

SnitchSeeker: Talk about the image behind you. How quickly were you able to draw that just from memory?
GrandPré: It was probably about a five minute sketch.

SnitchSeeker: It’s just that natural for you?
GrandPré: Well, I’ve drawn him a few times so my hand just goes there.

SnitchSeeker: Can you take us back nearly 20 years ago when you first got the gig for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, how that came about? Also, just being one of the first people ever having read the books before the rest of the world?
GrandPré: Yes, right! Well, I was a freelance illustrator – I still am – and so I would get phone calls from art directors like I normally do. I got a phone call from the art director for Scholastic, David Saylor, and he just asked me if I was interested in illustrating the book cover and inside chapter headings. I said, “Yeah, I want to give it a try.” So I read the manuscript. I liked it, and it turned out there were going to be three books – that projection turned out to be seven books – so it just escalated. But it started out as any job. We didn’t know it would be that big.

SnitchSeeker: So who’s been the easiest character to draw? The most difficult? Talk us through that.
GrandPré: The easiest character... I guess I’d have to say Harry because I think I know him better than the others. I know so much about him. But the hard part about any character though, is that I have to age them a year each time – especially Harry and his friends. That’s probably the most difficult thing to do, the aging process. A difficult character... probably Voldemort because we weren’t sure how much to show and how to make someone that evil look evil.

SnitchSeeker: There’s so much in every single chapter, how do you go about your process of choosing the specific image for every chapter art?
GrandPré: That’s a tough one. I just make several notes as I read through the chapters with my highlighter and pick images that will be super interesting but not give away the story. So just find the weird image – the thing that gives the reader a hint of what the chapter’s about.

SnitchSeeker: Tell us some of your favorite chapter arts that you’ve done.
GrandPré: There’s one with a mummy coming out of a closet that I remember. There’s the fireplace with all of the letters shooting out. There’s Harry and Hermione and Ron standing with the prefect’s badge – there’s some emotional things there. Snape was one of my favorite sketches because I loved drawing him as a character. And Voldemort, finally, with the hood and the snake.

SnitchSeeker: The fandom expanded as the last three books came out, so we imagine there was a lot more pressure keeping those specific secrets because you got to read them first. So can you talk about how you did that – kept it secret from everybody? Did all the art on your own?
GrandPré: Yeah, it was an agreement. You had to agree to just be really private and secretive about it because it was such an important book. So I had to keep it in a safe in my house. My husband and daughter didn’t really bug me. They knew it was pretty serious stuff. And I didn’t talk about it. I was just really secretive about doing it. I worked pretty quietly.

SnitchSeeker: Were there any characters or chapter pieces or locations you wanted to draw but you never got around to?
GrandPré: You know, I can’t really think of any. I feel like I got a lot of freedom and a lot of wonderful choices. David and I worked together, and Arthur Levine, too, to pick our favorite things. I really don’t think I crave to draw anything else.

SnitchSeeker: What kind of feedback did you get from J.K. Rowling on any of the books, if ever?
GrandPré: She just told me that she loved them and that she had a choice in choosing the illustrators and she chose me, which was really sweet. I think she’s just appreciative as I am of her work so much.

SnitchSeeker: Did she ever tell you which one was her favorite in terms of characters or locations or chapter art?
GrandPré: She likes Harry. She didn’t get too specific about anything else.

SnitchSeeker: There are a lot more new versions of the books out with different illustrations. How do you compare that to the art you’ve done and how that expanded the Harry Potter experience for a new generation?
GrandPré: Well, the other Potter books have different covers. I think ours stand out. They all have their own feel, their own look. I think that we made ours rich, jewel-toned treasure of covers. And then the other spin on things, some of them follow that trend and some took off in other ways. But the Harry Potter type and all that stuff hangs together.

SnitchSeeker: The Harry Potter film series were coming out as the books. How much influence did they have or not have? Did you ever see yourself subconsciously drawing somebody who looked similar to the movie characters?
GrandPré: I made it a point to not watch any of the movies until all of the books were done. So I didn’t see the first movie until I was way done with book seven.

SnitchSeeker: What advice would you give to aspiring artists?
GrandPré: To just really hang in there and keep drawing every day, and to really listen to what kind of drawing makes them feel good. Be unique and just work hard at just being true to who they are as an artist – how they really draw from inside them.