Illustrator Mary GrandPré is most notably known for her cover and chapter illustrations for the iconic Harry Potter books. GrandPré has been illustrating for over thirty years. Her body of work includes more than twenty children’s picture books. GrandPré’s artwork has appeared in gallery exhibitions, advertising campaigns, and national periodicals such as The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and The Wall Street Journal.
To the delight of several of our very own “Potterheads” on staff, GrandPré visited the New York Family office last week to discuss her latest project: a personalized bedtime book called Goodnight Little Me, published by the Minneapolis-based children’s book franchise I See Me. Written by award-winning children’s book author Jennifer Dewing—who also stopped by to chat about the project—Goodnight Little Me is personalized with your child’s name in the title, and also incorporated into both the story and illustrations.
Though, of course Dewing and GrandPré were eager to spread the word about their beautiful new collaboration, GrandPré was also kind enough to indulge our nerdy staff—and our editor-in-chief’s 13-year-old-daughter—with some insight into the thought process and inspiration behind the iconic illustrations she created for the Harry Potter series.
New York Family: What can you tell us about your latest project for kids?
Mary GrandPré: I’ve never worked on a personalized book before. I’m really excited because I think it’s really high-quality—the ways the names are integrated into the story are quite seamless. I See Me is a company whose goal is to boost self-esteem in children… The company was started by Allan Haag and his wife Maia in the year 2000. They’ve been doing these personalized books for children and their goal is to just create a higher scale of product, and they do. Allan called me a year and half ago and asked if I’d be interested in doing this book with Jen. We [Jen and I] actually just met today.
Jennifer Dewing: Often the editorial and creative sides of a children’s book are kept separate because once the author writes the manuscript, they really just want the illustrator to use their imagination, and the book should have enough visual cues in it. If you have an author working directly with an illustrator, it can box the illustrator in.
NYF: Tell us about the new book and the personalized books concept in general.
GrandPré: The book is called Goodnight Little Me… This is my first personalized book…the reason I agreed to do the book is because I connected with the manuscript. It had this really magical, lyrical way of talking about this parade of animals in the night sky. It really held my attention with creating a wonderful atmosphere for a child to flow through the story.
A lot of the color palette I used is a lot like the Harry Potter color palette…and the name is incorporated everywhere; I See Me really takes the time to get it right, like with digital coding. And they bring separate pieces of art together really well. So, they can choose the number of animals or flowers [on a page] based on the number of letters in the child’s name, so there’s a lot of care taken. I work really hard to get the color right, and when a book comes out it doesn’t look how it’s supposed to, I get really upset—but this company gets right.
Dewing: When you look at a lot of other personalized books, the name isn’t really incorporated in the illustrations, it’s just kind of slapped in there. Allan’s and my goal is to make it seamless…and the kids really enjoy finding their name or their photo on the page in the I See Me books.
NYF: How did the two of you come together for this project?
Dewing: I wrote this book a few years ago and when I brought it to the co-founders, they really liked it. There are so many Goodnight books out there so it’s hard to make one that’s different. Allan—he does all the creative and works with illustrators—said “I know the perfect person to do this.” I asked who it was and he said Mary’s name. I just thought: “Oh, good luck with that.” And then sure enough, he came into a meeting and said Mary likes the manuscript and wants to do it…it’s a big honor. It’s been really fun.
NYF: Mary, what words came to mind as you created the illustrations—some pages are more ethereal while others look like a big party.
GrandPré: Well It’s a combination of both…it was really a challenge because this is a bedtime story so you don’t want the kids to get too excited. I started with a rich start palette and with some glowing color and then I started to tone it down—the animals became clouds and it’s quiet at the end… [I used a lot of yellow] because I wanted to play against the purples, I needed to have some brightness, and some gold. I needed something happy. That’s the trick with doing a nighttime book—things can get dark.
NYF: How does this book stack up in terms of the numbers of illustration boards and spreads—especially given the customizable elements?
GrandPré: I would say this book was maybe 30-35 boards. And it’s all alphabets, extra flowers, little crickets, and things like that…it was really great because I’ve never done something like this before.
NYF: Mary, do you see yourself illustrating many more children’s books?
GrandPré: No, I still have my hand in it, but I see myself doing more fine arts work—stuff that’s not childlike and more for adults. Still some whimsy and with a mystical quality to it, working with symbols and things like that.
NYF: Mary, You’ve agreed to kindly indulge us in answering some Harry Potter questions. Can you tell us, what was your favorite book in the series to illustrate?
GrandPré: That’s a great question. It’s hard because I felt so connected to all of them, but I would have to say book number one [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone]…because it’s the first time you walk into this world and are introduced to it. They say the first impression is the strongest. And also because Harry was so vulnerable in that book. You appreciate that he’s a normal boy.
NYF: Tell us about the process of reading the books and drawing inspiration before creating the illustrations.
GrandPré: I’m actually not a great reader, but I had to read each book before I illustrated them. And it took me a long time. I read, and re-read, and re-read. That’s how I have to it. I have to make sure I’m getting it right. My daughter, who’s in third grade, has no interest in reading them (laughs) actually.
NYF: Who’s you favorite character in the Harry Potter books?
GrandPré: I would have to say Harry. And after Harry, Hagrid. Because Hagrid is modeled after my most wonderful, favorite dog. He’s part Saint Bernard, part collie and he would lay at my feet at the drawing board. I didn’t have children at the time, and he was like my child.
NYF: What is your relationship like with J.K. Rowling—would your drawings evolve with her feedback?
GrandPré: She was really agreeable to everything. I worked with Scholastic and Arthur Levine…and they would meet with her and show her sketches, but I don’t think she ever said “no” to anything… She’s great. She’s a regular mom.
NYF: The impact of the illustrations on the movies is amazing.
GrandPré: Yeah, it’s fun. I’ve only seen one movie [the first one]. But they’ve done a great job from what I can tell—I see clips everywhere. I guess I couldn’t look at the movies because I was still working on the books for so many years and I didn’t want the movies to influence my work. But every once in a while I would see characters that looked just like how I drew them, so that was cool. J.K. is such a visual writer…she describes everything so well.
NYF: When you saw the one Harry Potter film that you did see, where there strong reactions to how any of the characters looked?
GrandPré: Well, Harry’s hair was too neat—when I saw it on-screen, I just wanted to mess it up…but I think that Dumbledore was pretty close.
NYF: Which were your favorites to draw of the non-human character
GrandPré: I like Hedwig of course, Hedwig was sweet. And Buckbeak, and Aunt Marge. One of my favorite drawings was of Aunt Marge [in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets] when she blew up, and floated up to the ceiling in her underpanties…Umbridge was fun to draw too because she was like a frog.
GrandPré: It’s both, but it’s mostly a gift, and it comes with a challenge for me. The challenge is to continue to grow and not be labeled—because I am labeled. [Goodnight Little Me] isn’t such a huge jump from [Harry Potter] because of the magical color palette. My challenge is to—even though I’m know for [Harry Potter]—totally break out of that box and do different things. It’s almost like a dare, because it makes me angry and makes me step out and try things I haven’t done. But it’s good, it’s a mix.
