Mary GrandPré is an American illustrator who is best known for her drawings, cover and chapter illustrations that she provided for the original Scholastic versions of the Harry Potter books.
Biography[]
Mary GrandPré took an interest in art when she was very young, and earned an undergraduate degree at Pomona College before attending Minneapolis College of Art and Design.[1]
In her early career, she submitted artwork to a number of popular publications and for advertising, taught at The Ringling School of Art and Design and throughout her whole career, has worked on at least two DreamWorks productions and has illustrated over 20 books.[2]
In 1997, the art director of Scholastic Publishing invited GrandPré to submit book cover illustrations for the Harry Potter books. Her work was selected for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. J.K. Rowling was very impressed by her work, and Mary created book cover and chapter art for the next six books in the series. She understood by the third book that she was working on something special.[3]