Mark Braught, a professional illustrator, created the official images for Warner Brothers (WB)-approved Harry Potter merchandise. Before WB announced the actors, they needed illustrations to help with developing merchandise and for promotions for the first film. Braught created those illustrations. He spoke about his work on the “Illustrating Harry Potter: An Hour with Mark Braught” panel at 10AM on Sunday at the Marriott, Room A707 on the Young Adult Literature Track.
A professional freelance illustrator since 1984, Braught was chosen to create around 60 illustrations for WB to be used to create merchandise. Braught had to create one illustration per day. He drew chalk illustrations on poster-sized paper, getting constant feedback from both WB and JK Rowling herself. JK had final approval on all illustrations.
During that time, Braught would start at five or six in the morning and would have to be done by 11AM or 12PM so that he could package up the illustration, drive it to the airport, and put it on a plane because that was all he could do back then. When the plane arrived in LA, he’d have a driver to pick it up and deliver it to the WB studios by ten that night.
He started his work creating turnarounds of the characters, meaning he’d draw the character from the front, side, and also behind. Braught created those turnarounds in black and white first, then added color, getting feedback throughout. Once he received approval for the illustrations, 3D statues of the characters were created to match the illustrations. Braught also created size comparison charts for the characters to ensure the characters were drawn correctly in relation to each other. For example, Hagrid was the largest character, so they had to ensure none of the other characters in a scene were the same size or larger.
After completing character illustrations, it was time to choose scenes from the novel that Braught would illustrate. The process was collaborative between Braught, his art director, the WB, and JK Rowling. Braught created scenes using chalk. As he worked, he would get feedback from his art director to make changes and he’d have to erase the chalk and revise. At times there were so many revisions the chalk would no longer stick to the paper, and Braught would have to tell the art director no more changes or he wouldn’t make the day’s deadline.
Knowing that filming was taking place for the first movie, Braught would ask for details (eg, the pajamas for the Christmas scene), but WB wanted to keep all the actors names under wraps at the time. They sent him images of the characters in their pajamas, but their faces were blocked out.
After creating the illustrations, 30/60 Design created an illustrations book with everything Braught had created. A lot of companies signed on to do merchandise in coordination with the films, but they could only use illustrations from the book for their merchandise.
After discussing what he went through to create the illustrations, Braught talked a little more about his background. He went to art school and learned to work in a lot of different mediums as all artists do. He worked in pastels for a long time because it’s really easy for set up and clean up. He learned how to do digital programs as technology advanced, but prefers conventional. He never stops drawing. He’s always playing with and changing his images, tweaking them to make them better.
One of the last questions, asked was did he have a favorite character he drew for the illustrations? His first answer was Fluffy, noting its fun to draw a three-headed dog. He said Hermione was fun, because she kept changing from book to book. The one he felt turned out best, though, was Harry with the wand.
He wrapped up the panel by noting the project was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Lots of other illustrators would have loved to be in his place and it opened up a lot of doors for him. He loves making his living this way and he was glad he got to be a part of this project.
