Jim Kay - Harry Potter Illustrator Artist Review & Illustration advice video

About: 
Harry Potter is one of my all-time favourite, stories. I love how it can allow your mind to wander and be creative with no boardies of reality.  I love the deeper storylines, which the mainstream media doesn't covey as well.  I love how the bases of the principles is that love is stronger than anything in the world. I got the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone book illustrated by Jim Kay back last year. I thought it was an amazing job to see Jim's interpretation of the world. What inspired this blog post was that I went to the Harry Potter - The history of Magic exhibition over in the British library. There was massive original painting by Jim Kay and this made me want to discover more about his work and him in a lot more detail.

Video // Jim Kay on illustrating the world of Harry Potter: 

This video was fascinating to me as, I love seeing how other creatives have their studio space arranged, as I think that the environment is so key to what you produce. Jim is inspired by his garden with all the different shapes of plants to spark an idea for creating the world of Harry Potter. It is also great seeing the personality of Jim, as you can see that his personality is communicated through his work.

Video // Jim Kay talk on illustration at the Create Expo 2016: 

This video was a lot longer, he went back to his old school to give a talk. The quality of the video is not good, however, the information contained in the video, goes into a lot more depth with illustration and practices.  

The main key points I took away from this video is: 

1. When working in fantasy, always have an anchor point to reality. 
2. He makes models of things he draws first so he can see how it works, where the light, perspective etc.. Which was a very clever idea, as this is what I struggle with a lot. 
3. When illustration animals and magical creatures he draws the skeleton so he knows how it would move and have a clear understanding of what he is drawing. 
4. He uses a lot of experimental and digital ways to create his image making. 
5. To have other interest as they will always feed into your work and make it more interesting

Here are some of my favourite work from Jim Kay Harry Potter collection: 

              

Why I love Jim Kay work for Harry Potter: 

There has been so much art and creative work, to do with Harry Potter that sometimes, it doesn't feel like there is any fresh and new high-quality visual work that has its own voice. This might be because a lot is fan based work. It just seems that a lot has been inspired by the films and all the references that are already out there already, which is good. But words alone and personal interest can spark so much imagination sometimes and give the different perspective and take on a situation. 

I think this is what Jim Kay does in one of the most incredible ways possible, he is able to look at a story which is so well known and has  already had such a strong visual langue with a fresh pair of eyes and with his own interest and imagination has been able to create a world the public know so well but in a unique, fresh and fascinating way that makes me question how should I as a designer should I be thinking about the worlds that are created in books and films, with my imagination and not always accept what put right in front of me? 

It really fascinating as his drawing style isn't just one style though out the whole books, there are many various textures, techniques and interesting way of creating images through out the whole book.  This I think allows it again to feel fresh and new as you a journaling your way though the book, making a reader get excited and engaged turning the pages, but also for him its probably interesting to be experimenting with new things, as the project to illustrate the whole serious is one massive task. 

Overall all his work I think is breath taking, there so much detail, time, effort and creativity gone into each piece of design work. I admire how hard he works and how he seems to be interested in such random and cool stuff which in turn give his work a personality to all his work. Jim is defiantly an artist one day that I would love to work on an interesting project.  I was disappointed that there weren't any art prints sold as I would really love a couple to put into gold frames around my flat. Hopeful one day they will have a shop where you can buy them. 

Where to find more about Jim Kay: 

• Jim Kay Blog: http://www.jimkay.co.uk/home/harry-potter/
• Creepy Scrawlers Website ( Creative home of Jim Kay and Louise Clark ) - https://creepyscrawlers.com/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/creepy_scrawlers/

Other interesting sources on Jim Kay: 

• Harry Potter a History of Magic Tv Show - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09d5n6b/harry-potter-a-history-of-magic
• Q&A with Jim Kay - https://hpmedia.bloomsbury.com/rep/files/qa-with-jim-kay-1.pdf
• Event with Jim Kay - https://www.bl.uk/events/illustrating-harry-potter-with-jim-kay-and-olivia-lomenech-gill
• A History of Magic Exhibition British Library - https://www.bl.uk/events/harry-potter-a-history-of-magic

Let me know what you think of his work and him as a designer below in the comments! Thanks for reading.