In praise of fan art (and my birthday card)

Harry Potter on the front of my card

The message inside

Harry Potter art -- an under appreciated aspect of the whole Potterworld fandom.

I continue to be impressed with the artwork that decorates the boxes and cases of the audio book collection I received for my recent birthday, the Jim Dale version with artwork.

I believe that the artist's name is Mary GrandPre, if I interpret the information on one of the CD jackets correctly.

The artwork that decorates these box sets is so incredibly good that I wish this artist would be hired to do a set of graphic novels of the Harry Potter books. I love the fact that her little pieces of art include not only entire scenes from the novels but also entire images devoted to smaller details, like the symbol of the Deathly Hallows or someone's hand or a single building.

I have also mentioned the wonderful artwork on the covers of the French versions of the books, published by Folio Junior. These paintings were created by Jean-Claude Gotting and they are truly magnificent.

Now take a look at the beautiful birthday card I recently received from a young artist friend of mine (presented above). I love the square, card-filling image of Harry, complete with his Gryffindor scarf, on the front of the card -- but I think the little snitch and witch's hat (the "Sorting Hat" perhaps?) that decorate the birthday message (delivered in perfect Harry Potter film font) make the whole card a magnificent piece of work.

I have looked through Pinterest and on the web and seen many many more fabulous examples of fan art for Harry Potter. Fantastic stuff. I just wish I possessed even the slightest artistic talent!

Harry Potter at Beauxbatons?

I've recently come upon the idea of trying to improve my French by reading my favourite books in their French-language translations. Imagine my surprise (and pleasure) at finding the first two Harry Potter novels, in French, at our local used book store, the Owl's Nest, for about a third of the cover price!

And in perfect condition, I might add.

I snapped them up. Both Harry Potter a l'ecole des sorciers and Harry Potter et la chambre des secrets are translated by Jean-Francois Menard and published by Gallimard Jeunesse. Each features a really neat cover painting by Jean-Claude Gotting, as you can see in the photo.

Now I can enjoy Harry Potter in numerous different forms: the books in English, the movies in English, the books in English on CD and the books in French. I'll have to see if my Blu-Ray copies of the movies have French soundtracks too.

But don't worry, from what I can see, the French version of the books don't have Harry and his friends attending Beauxbatons! It's still Hogwarts all the way.