Sabine
Wilharm
Sabine Wilharm was born in Hamburg in 1954. She studied illustration at the University of Applied Sciences for Design in Hamburg. Since graduating in 1976, she has worked as a freelance children’s and young adult book illustrator, illustrating the covers of the Harry Potter books, among others. She also drew caricatures and illustrated stories for magazines such as “Spiegel” and “Stern”. The 69-year-old now lives in Quickborn.
Sabine Wilharm, illustrator and graphic designer, studied in Hamburg and later taught illustration and free drawing at the Academy of Design there. She produced caricatures and comics for magazines for many years and, together with Tobias Krejtschi, is the patron of the Hamburg Children’s Book House in the Altona Museum. She has illustrated a large number of picture books and children’s novels, and we can talk about just a few of them today.
What is it about when you design a cover? Do you try to capture the essence of 700 pages or do you look for an aspect of the story?
Capturing an essence is incredibly difficult. It’s great when you capture the atmosphere. The reader looks at the title first; it should be promising, should arouse curiosity, make you want to read. The decision for the individual scenes in Harry Potter was also made in collaboration with the editor at the publishing house.
After studying at the University of Applied Sciences for Design in Hamburg, Wilharm began working as a freelance illustrator in 1976. At first she illustrated books for adults, later she also illustrated children’s books. Mrs. Wilharm, who has remained true to her hometown of Hamburg, also creates caricatures and illustrated stories for magazines such as Spiegel and Stern . Sabine Wilharm will be 71 years old in 2025.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
In July 1998, one year after the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the United Kingdom but before its release in the United States of America, the first book by J.K. Rowling was published in Germany by Carlsen Verlag, one of the biggest publishers in that country. Like all German edition Harry Potter books that followed later, it was illustrated by Sabine Wilharm and translated by Klaus Fritz. No one knew at this point what a huge hype this story was going to be, but it is suggested that Carlsen had the rights to translate and publish the books very early on, before the huge success of Harry Potter and thus, they had more freedom for the creative aspects (such as cover illustrations) and the marketing of the books than other publishers.
I was lucky that I was already doing well in my job when the Harry Potter books were published. But such a famous book naturally draws attention to you. That’s helpful when you’re a freelance illustrator who makes a living from commissions. In 1998, when Harry Potter was published in Germany, it was a good children’s book among others. If it had already been famous, the publisher might have put out a call for tenders, I don’t know. Covers are usually awarded through publishing rounds. The editors consult with each other for new projects about who is suitable for illustrating the books and who has time.
He was supposed to have a narrow face. He was supposed to wear round glasses. He was supposed to have knobbly knees, light green eyes, black hair and, of course, a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. The specifications for the ten-year-old’s appearance were vague. The passages of text that Sabine Wilharm chose to highlight in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in 1998 were few and far between. The commission from Carlsen Publishing to design the cover of Joanne K. Rowling’s children’s book left plenty of room for imagination - the best reason for the illustrator to accept.
“I was excited by the multidimensionality of the characters,” Sabine Wilharm remembers. After reading carefully, the illustrator retreated to her deck chair, which is available for complicated brainwaves in her studio in a former coffee machine factory in Hamburg. “Initially, there is nothing more than a feeling. I try to develop a feeling for the figures and start to draw them in my head.”
The first sketches were made. Pencil lines formed a child’s face on milky tracing paper. Wilharm doubted, added to, rejected, started again and doubted again. The creative process dragged on for days, even weeks. Drafts filled countless folders: Potter from behind, from the front, sometimes angry, sometimes fearful, with short and long hair.
After a night or two weeks, Wilharm pulled the work out again, assessed it, compared image and feeling. “I have to develop a relationship with the story. With texts that I don’t like, the drawings remain empty and lifeless,” she explains.
But she likes “Harry Potter,” very much. Her own touch is unmistakable in the drawings: her portraits are bulky, angular, not cute. Harry’s eyes sparkle ambiguously under his raised eyebrow. “I’m attracted to the psychological,” she admits.
“Is there actually a living model for your Harry Potter?” “No. I never decide in advance what a character should look like. That only becomes clear when I’ve drawn a few sketches. As with any book, the text determines how I approach a drawing. In Ms. Rowling’s work in particular, almost all of the characters are very ambivalent. That then rubs off on my drawings.”
I can’t remember it all in detail, of course. But the process was the same as with many character creations. I read the book and developed a feeling for the character, not an image, but an emotional idea. I sat down and tried to draw a corresponding face. I compared what I came up with with my feeling for the character. At some point, the eyes and the forehead came into being. The mouth was quite difficult in Harry Potter. But that gave me a clue, and the search became more and more focused: face shape, hair, glasses, erasing, new sheet of paper, new attempt. It’s a process of getting closer.
The first sketches of the character Harry were created in 1998 and she was enthusiastic about its multidimensionality, the artist said in an interview with CINEMA in 2001. We actually like the German illustrator’s drawings much better than those of the originals or the US editions of Harry Potter. It is said that the author herself prefers Wilharm’s illustrations to those of other artists. Unfortunately, there is still a fear that the owner of the merchandising rights, Warner Bros., will want to create a uniform image of the characters in the future. From their point of view, it makes sense to use the American representation for this.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
A critical attitude is always maintained - even in retrospect: While she finds the cover of the first volume satisfactory, she considers the second work to be only mediocre. “It was difficult to find Harry again,” she apologizes.
I’m having problems with volume two. That was the second time I drew Harry and I found it incredibly difficult. The nose is much too pointy, the hair is too yellow and hangs down in a strange way. I would do that differently today.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
And this would explain how we came to the four rare books in Germany. As the hype became bigger for the fourth volume, for the first time there was an online poll on Carlsen’s website: the readers had the chance to vote for their favourite cover, and the winning cover was going to be the one used in the printed book.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Three years later the hype came to the next level with the fifth book Harry Potter und der Orden des Phönix: Reading nights, competitions, magic shows, costume contests and of course the midnight book sale. And this time again, an online poll to choose the winning cover.
The first German bookseller edition was made for the fifth novel, “Der Orden des Phönix”. The bookseller edition carries a brown jacket that hides the final cover that was used in the regular edition. A bookseller once told me that these books were in the showcases and/or the shop window before it was published in order to increase the excitement of the book and the final cover until midnight. Also they were meant as a thank you to the booksellers. You can find inside a printed message from the author J.K. Rowling to the booksellers in the first pages as an intro note, including a facsimile of her signature.
German Potter publisher Carlsenopens in new window has announced the official cover for their version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. More than 100,000 readers voted on two possible covers on Carlsen’s Web site. The book comes out in German on November 8.
The German-language edition of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” was published on November 8, 2003. The author Joanne K[athleen] Rowling allowed numerous street magazines, social and homeless newspapers in the German-speaking world to print the first chapter of the volume, “Dudley bewildered,” free of charge about two weeks before the official publication date.
Carlsen Publishing and illustrator Sabine Wilharm supported the campaign by providing three illustrations that the editorial teams were allowed to use: Harry riding on a broom, his owl Hedwig approaching, and a bird’s eye view of Hogwarts Castle. There was also an illustrative Roman numeral ‘V’ and the cover of the book edition, which of course could be shown, but (isolated) image sections were also used for illustrative purposes. Illustration variants were created by horizontal mirroring and assembling individual image elements. The individual editorial teams used various options for digital image distortion.
Harry Potter fans can vote on the Internet on what the German edition of the fifth volume should look like. As the Hamburg-based Carlsen publishing house, which is releasing the book on November 8th, announced, illustrator Sabine Wilharm will again design the cover. There are two designs to choose from. Both can be viewed on the Internet from this Friday at http://www.carlsen-harrypotter.de. Voting ends on August 28th at 12 noon.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The second bookseller edition was made for the sixth book, but this time was different. People had the option to vote for two options for the final cover. This time, the cover that did not get enough votes was used in the bookseller edition in a creative way. The final cover was still used in the book, but the dustjacket was made with the cover that did not get enough votes. However, since this dustjacket shows the Astronomy Tower in the final chapters of the book, the fall of Dumbledore was digitally removed in the dust jacket to avoid a major spoiler! As it happened with the previous book, this one includes a facsimile signature of J.K. Rowling and a message thanking (again) the booksellers for their hard work.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The last book in the series, Harry Potter und die Heiligtümer des Todes, had two rare editions that are sought after for Harry Potter collectors.
The first one was again an edition made specially for booksellers. This time, like for the fifth book, the brown dust jacket covered the final cover (and the style was very similar to the one for Harry Potter 5). However, it did not include a message by J.K. Rowling for the booksellers, only a bookplate where the reader could write their name on it.
The other edition for the seventh book is the rarest of the four, and the hardest to acquire for any collector who wants to put their hands on it. As with the previous books, Carlsen allowed fans to vote for their favourite cover to be used in the printed book. However, this time there was a small difference. The poll was organized with the German newspaper Bild, and it was possible to vote online or via a phone call (you had to pay 50 cents for the call). Those who voted via a phone call entered a fantastic giveaway: the chance to win one of the 100 copies that Carslen did with a special dust jacket. Why a special dust jacket? Because this dust jacket had the loser cover that did not get enough votes. As if this was not enough, these copies were signed by the illustrator Sabine Wilharm and also came with a letter by the publishing house.
For the German edition of the seventh and final volume, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” fans could choose between two cover motifs. Not least to the delight of Joanne K. Rowling: Of the more than twenty national young magicians, the German Harry is the Scot’s favorite, “because he is never just cute.”
Hamburg (RPO). The cover of the seventh German volume of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” has now been decided: The cover will be decorated with a picture of Harry and his adversary Lord Voldemort facing each other at a fire.
From July 26 to August 6, a total of 289,722 Potter fans voted on Sabine Wilharm’s two cover designs at carlsen-harrypotter.de. 62 percent chose the cover with Harry and Voldemort. On the second cover that was available to choose from, Harry flies on his broom through an army of dragon-like creatures that appear to be made of flames.
On the current cover, for example, you can see Harry and Voldemort. I tried to draw Harry in such a way that it is clear that two enemies are meeting. But even so, Harry does not seem bold, brave or confident of victory, but rather strangely reserved. This can only be explained if you have read the book. It is a very, very delicate scene that is described there. And a very important one, because it has a lot to do with inner overcoming, with fear and, precisely because of that, with courage. That’s what I tried to portray and I hope I succeeded.