Jim Kay studied illustration at the University of Westminster and worked in the archives of Tate Britain and the Royal Botanic Gardens before becoming a full-time illustrator. He won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2012 for his illustrations for Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls. More recently, Jim contributed an installation to the V&A Museum’s Memory Palace exhibition, and was chosen by J. K. Rowling to illustrate the full-colour editions of the Harry Potter series. He lives in Kettering, Northamptonshire.
Jim Kay, Kate Greenaway Medal winner, is currently working on the first fully illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Of this prestigious commission Jim says “To be given the opportunity to design the characters, the clothing, the architecture and landscapes to possibly the most expansive fantasy world in children's literature, well let’s just say I'm extremely excited about it. The story is everything, and so I want to bring what I can to really show the depth of Rowling's stories, to their best.”
Here is a sneak preview of piece of Jim's artwork to feature on the Illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The illustration shows the front of Flourish & Blotts, the bookshop on Diagon Alley where Harry buys his first set of school books and is part of a larger illustration of Diagon Alley that will appear in the finished book.
Illustrator's Website: http://www.jimkay.co.uk/
