Who Is The Illustrator For The UK Edition Of The Harry Potter Series?

Thomas Taylor provided the cover art for the first Harry Potter Book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. He was replaced by Cliff Wright, who provided the cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Taylor was replaced as Bloomsbury felt that they wanted a more experienced illustrator due to the popularity of the first book.

Wright was replaced by Giles Greenfield for the cover art for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The reason for the change was that Wright refused to provide the art for the fourth books as a result of Bloomsbury misplacing his original illustrations for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Greenfield was replaced by Jason Cockroft, who provided the cover art for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

It is not yet known who will provide the cover for the seventh and final Harry Potter book, which is rumoured to be released in 2007.

Unlike the UK edition, which went through a barrage of illustrators, the US version has stuck to one illustrator for all six Potter books so far.

As well as providing the cover art for all the books, Mary Grand Pre has also provided interior illustrations, which the UK books do not have.

Mary Grand Pre graduated at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. All of her Harry Potter illustrations have been created using pastels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and The Wall Street Journal.

Grand Pre has also produced a fair number of picture books, including Vegetables Go to Bed, Pockets, Swing Around the Sun, The Sea Chest, Plum, Henry and Pawl and the Round Yellow Bawl, Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat, to name a few.

Grand Pre's Harry Potter Illustrations are also used for editions in other countries, and also the US box sets editions. She has also provided the artwork for the US editions of the two companion Harry Potter Books, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch through the Ages.