Inside The Chamber of Secrets: an interview with illustrator Jim Kay
A whirlwind of critical acclaim and global sales greeted the publication of the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but even then illustrator Jim Kay was already fully immersed in illustrating the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Helen Boyle spoke to Jim for Books for Keeps, and discovered how he found his way in to J.K. Rowling’s world.
How do you respond to the challenging of illustrating the most famous children’s books of the age? Jim Kay’s approach to illustrating J.K. Rowling’s modern classics has been one of intense attention to detail. Finding real people to ‘cast’ as the characters and draw them as they age has been key to his visualisation of Harry and his friends. ‘I try to see the people I’ve ‘cast’ as my models once a year,’ he explains. ‘Children grow so fast! That’s what I find interesting, that people never age the way you’d expect. I have a friend who’s quite dishy with a winning smile, and so he was the obvious choice for Lockhart. By a remarkable stroke of luck his partner is perfect for Snape, and I mean perfect, even the voice. I think of all the images I’ve worked on, painting Snape for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has been my favourite so far.’
But some characters are difficult to find a real model for, Dobby the House Elf for instance. ‘I had no idea just how popular Dobby was until working on Chamber of Secrets,’ admits Kay. ‘From my point of view he has been really challenging. The text describes him
very carefully, so I tried to adhere to that as closely as possible, but the problem has been the eyes. They are supposed to be the size of tennis-balls, which can so easily look cartoonish. I made a body out of plasticine, and a variety of Dobby heads containing false- eyes. One of them, with bat-like ears, just seemed to click for me. Like most of my models I recycled him (he’s now a hippogryph’s bottom), which I now regret. I’d grown fond of the little chap. But now I will need to rebuild him for later books!’
Like Kay’s illustrative approach to the first Harry Potter story, this second book contains illustrations in many different mediums; from pencil sketches to gouache and watercolour. And art history and natural history references abound: the mandrake page that hints at a Leonardo sketch, the playful references to natural history species
14 Books for Keeps No.221 November 2016
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