On October 10, Tre Publishing House, in collaboration with international publishers, released The Wizarding World by author JK Rowling. For the first time, a fully illustrated color book about the magical world of Harry Potter was released to readers worldwide.
Among the 7 artists from around the world who illustrated The Magic Book, Pham Quang Phuc is the representative from Vietnam. He participated in drawing the cover and illustrating some pages.
Pham Quang Phuc is an artist who won first prize in the fiction category of the 2018 ASEAN Children's Book Illustration Competition.
Artist Pham Quang Phuc (Photo: Tre Publishing House).
How do you feel about participating in the project "The Witch's Book"?
I think the Harry Potter series is a must-read for readers. Every illustrator of children's books wishes to contribute to this title at least once. When this opportunity came to me, I happily accepted it and tried my best.
I know that this group of illustrators includes some big names who have drawn other books in the Harry Potter series. I am extremely happy to be illustrating The Wizarding Book with Levi Pinfold - one of the people who inspired me to pursue illustration.
It's great that after about 10 years of pursuing this career, I can illustrate the same book with someone I greatly admired as an amateur illustrator.
Difficulty in illustrating the wizarding world of Harry Potter in "The Wizarding Book"?
I re-read all 7 volumes and re-watched 8 movies to make sure I got the spirit I wanted to convey to the readers.
I think the biggest challenge was getting as many details from the book into the drawing. Luckily, the process was difficult but also very interesting, because I got to live in the wizarding world again like when I was a kid.
Bloomsbury shared your illustrated page of “Beyond the Bounds of Magic” with readers around the world when promoting the book. What was the process like for you to illustrate this page?
At first, I felt a bit pressured when I was assigned to illustrate the page Beyond the Limits of Magic. This is an important page, recalling many meanings and emotions from the series.
Moreover, the characters in Harry Potter have been redrawn by many famous artists. The actors in the movie are also very famous. It is difficult to create a cast of characters that are exactly like the descriptions in the books but also satisfy the imagination of the readers.
I understand that people have the right to imagine book characters in their own way, and so did I. I started drawing characters based on my own imagination. Maybe they looked a little like someone I knew or some famous character I had seen on TV.
Finally, I drew a Harry Potter that reminded me of myself as a kid.
In addition to designing the book cover, Pham Quang Phuc illustrated some pages such as "Beyond the Wizarding World", "Quidditch Through the Ages" (Photo: Tre Publishing House).
Besides the "Beyond the Limits of Magic" page, which page in "The Book of the Witches" do you like to illustrate the most?
I love the Quidditch of All Time page because I love watching sports on TV, especially football. I drew it while watching the 2022 FIFA World Cup. I love the spirit of sports and positive, dynamic things. So I had a lot of fun illustrating this page. It was a great time in my life.
Also, the two maps ( Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Harry Potter and the Wizarding World ) are two of my favorite pages.
Think back a little bit to the first time you read the Harry Potter series?
I read Harry Potter from middle school to high school. In my memory, the book series was released in Vietnam at the same time as the movie was released. Many fans lined up at the bookstore every time a new book was released.
Since I couldn't afford to buy the books, I had to wait for my friends to finish reading them before borrowing them, like borrowing books from the library. I felt like I grew up with the characters, like Daniel Radcliffe grew up with Harry Potter.
Now, as an adult, I collect beautifully illustrated books by Jim Kay (who was personally selected by JK Rowling to color every title in the Harry Potter series) for my work.
The series contributed greatly to my current style of drawing with dragons, monsters, magic and fantasy worlds.
Later, when I had more experience working and illustrating for The Wizarding World , I reread the book series and learned a lot from JK Rowling about how she built the wizarding world.
The world is so vivid and rich in detail, it inspires me deeply.
Who is your favorite character in "Harry Potter"?
Rubeus Hagrid.
He and I both love magical creatures and dragons.
Cover of the book "The Witch's Book" by Pham Quang Phuc (Photo: Tre Publishing House).
How did you become an illustrator?
When I was young, I wrote and drew a few short comics that were published in magazines. After graduating from university, I worked as a graphic designer, because the profession of illustrator was not popular in Vietnam at that time.
Working in the design industry for a short time, I discovered how interesting illustration could be when I read a few picture books.
Black Dog by Levi Pinfold was one of them, and it made me realize how wonderful picture books can be. It reminded me of my own love of drawing and writing children's stories as a child, and I've since tried to teach myself how to be a book illustrator.
I admire illustrators who can both draw beautiful pictures and write good stories, such as: Jimmy Liao, Shaun Tan, Levi Pinfold, Oliver Jeffers...
I love their work because it is extraordinary and the inspiring illustrations help me expand my imagination.
The Wizarding World is an encyclopedia of all the characters, locations, memorable moments, spells, magical creatures and magical objects in Harry Potter .
The 7 chapters of the book take readers to meet famous wizards and witches, explore popular means of entertainment in this world, visit all magical places, walk around Hogwarts, study curses and spells, learn about magical organizations and confront magical creatures.
All the interesting facts and secrets of the wizarding world can be found in 208 pages of the book.
In particular, The Wizarding Tale also revives memorable moments and events in the wizard boy's journey, from when the Hogwarts admission letter was sent to the Dursleys' house.
Impressive quotes, bizarre events, emotional victories, friends fighting side by side…
The book is likened to a "necessary room", if you want to know something about the wizarding world, just open the book and you will find it.
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