Xavier
Bonet

New covers

We love new artistic interpretations of the Harry Potter stories from absolutely everywhere. And this year, Spain-based illustrator and comic book artist Xavier Bonet was tasked with bringing his unique style to the wizarding world, illustrating the Harry Potter series’ book covers. Creating key scenes from the stories with detailed pencil sketches, including mapping out the Hogwarts grounds and interpreting key locations and characters from the books, learn all about Xavier’s process.

I had just worked on Lily Medialuna, which are two comics that I produced, both as an author and an illustrator, and I was very connected to the world of magic, I really liked it, and I had this offer from Penguin. Normally when they offer me projects they send me an email, in this case they asked me to go to the offices, which already sounded like something special to me. So I went to the offices and the truth is that when they told me, you can imagine, I went home shaking, I didn’t really know what they were telling me . Just thinking that after the incredible work that Dolores Avendaño did in her day, the covers, the first one that came out both in Spain and in Latin America, it is true that it is the first time they have given the opportunity to a Spanish illustrator. For me that was like... boom! And the process was quite magical: preparing a few sketches, reviewing them with them, with other high-ranking people, the connection was very powerful.

When [the publishers] confirmed it, I found it hard to believe. Only when I was already on my way home did I suddenly realise the full magnitude of the project, and I have to say that I was deeply moved. I felt very fortunate to be able to contribute my small grain of sand to this incredible magical world that continues to fascinate so many people. It was a true privilege for me and a magical connection to something I had carried deep within for years.

Fortunately, my children have always been a source of inspiration. When drawing Harry, I felt I needed to dive into how magic feels for the first time through the eyes of a boy. My children have helped me not only to find inspiration but also have become my most beautiful connection to magic. They help me maintain that magical perspective.

The world of Harry Potter is such a rich world, not only full of interesting characters, but also of settings and objects that carry their own story behind them, so it’s a universe that you can’t finish. The fact of having to make a decision on that type of illustrations is always very agreed upon with the publisher because it’s a book that’s of enormous importance. I’ve been extremely lucky to have a wonderful team that has helped me make that selection. Because it’s true that you never know which is going to be the best scene among all of them, and we couldn’t fill it all with illustrations, but rather there were some that were a visual break, so the choice is very much marked by the pagination. That is, if we put a new illustration after fifteen pages, we had to put more illustrations, so it is marked according to the pagination.

Separate the iconography of the films from that of the book: This has been one of the most complex tasks. The films are so iconic, they are so embedded in our retinas. I hadn’t seen them for a long time, so I started by re-reading them very, very thoroughly. You find many nuances. One of the things that the saga has is a great balance between light and darkness. It’s the transition between a child and an adult, and that doesn’t appear in the films, so for me it was very important to try to separate. I’ll insist: I’ve had a team that has helped me a lot, especially people who specialize in the world of Harry Potter in such a way that they know the smallest detail. For example, the Chamber of Secrets is completely different from how it is described in the book to how it is seen in the films. These illustrations are very close to the book. We know that very soon there will be an HBO series, this will reinforce a more truthful image with the books. It’s not that the films aren’t good, they have their own visual universe. I think that this edition is very carefully done, not only by my own work but also by Salamandra because we have reviewed every detail.

I hope that both longtime readers and new ones can see how the setting and magic are very present on the covers. But above all, I love being able to reflect the personality and depth of each character, as if each one were part of an independent story.

The composition and the choice of elements. Visually, there is a narration and a sense of reading that accompanies you every time you look at it. I also greatly enjoy the colour and the light, which I believe is the part that creates that special magic.

I try to convey the magic that captivated me as a child through my style, using colour, light, and atmosphere, and aiming for my characters to be expressive and show complexities beyond just a beautiful drawing. I have always loved comics, fantasy worlds, science fiction movies and music. I believe that all artists develop their style through that inner universe we create from a young age with our experiences and tastes.

I have put a lot of effort into trying to be as faithful to the story as possible, reviewing every detail with the editors to ensure everything made sense. I believe that working on a project of this magnitude allows you to gather a lot of information to apply later. I hope all of this is reflected in the illustrations.

Challenge: The evolution of the characters, while maintaining their essence. They all have a very well-constructed development, and capturing all those nuances in each book has been a great challenge but also something wonderful, as it makes you feel very close to them. Like part of their family.

Of course, the creation of the covers has been a very organic process, always referring back to the book to see how I could condense the most important parts. It’s an intensive job closely aligned with the editors, which is why it evolves until it takes on the final form that reaches everyone.

Normally, I start my process with paper and pencil, but in these types of projects that are so big, I start working digitally. One of the things I suggested to the publisher is how Harry is going to grow, so we started the first two books with a Harry who reflects a lot of their age, so that in the next books we could make him grow. The process was to imagine from the beginning how Harry is going to grow. As for magic... One of the things that is very present in my work is the setting. When I develop a book, and I think that behind a great book there is always a great reader, that what makes the book great is its reader, I think it is very important to convey that setting, to put yourself in that point of view of seeing where you are. I think the leitmotiv of my work can be seen in these first two books.

It’s everything, it’s everything. There are many editions, aimed at different audiences. We wanted to create an edition as standard as possible that would reach the widest possible audience. For me, there are two ways to make a cover: one that represents a specific scene, or one that represents the characters in their setting, each with their own different iconography. For me, who grew up in the eighties and with fantasy films, Star Wars, Labyrinth , it has generated an inner universe of mine. And I’m glad you noticed that reference because it’s quite direct: both in the first and in the second, the bottom part represents the journey; then a setting in the background, the characters that are introduced, the back cover is a pause for contemplation. Nowadays, when we consume so quickly, contemplation is important. And another thing that is very important to me is the spines.

There is a bit of magic in that. The books coming out, the fact that you have to wait. In today’s society it is very difficult to know how to wait. I grew up in the eighties and had to capture songs from the radio because Spotify didn’t exist, and when a song came on and I had to wait, the echo it caused was incredible, it made a lot of noise in the soul. And that wait generated what they call hype today . These editions that will be coming out in succession will have a bit of that wait.

im Kay is a reference for me. They are exquisite. One of the things that he conveys a lot is the English folklore that the whole saga is steeped in. For me it was important that in Spain a bit of the mix between that English folklore and a bit of ours, which is all over the place, could be seen. They are not finished and I think that nowadays it is important to respect the time of the authors and illustrators, of the female and male authors. Jim Kay’s work is a work of a lot of illustrations and you read a lot of comments that ask when. When you work on this you leave a bit of your soul in the book and you don’t get it back. One of the things that I would have loved is to work in color. Who knows.

I love this part because I’ve always been clear about it. I belong to Hufflepuff.