With the latest Harry Potter movie opening on Wednesday and the much-anticipated final book due for release on the 21st, you have no doubt been hearing and reading a lot lately about Harry hysteria. The Pastel Journal blog and magazine may have been one place where you didn't expect to see coverage on the topic. Well, you won't find me adding anything to the heated debate over whether or not Harry dies in the finale, but--in the middle of all the excitement--I couldn't keep from revealing that we're working right now on a feature about Mary Grandpre, the illustrator of the Harry Potter series, for our December issue.

In addition to her work for Scholastic and many corporate clients, Grandpre has also illustrated a number of other children's books, including Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat, The Thread of Life: Twelve Old Italian Tales, Plum, Pockets and The Sea Chest. The artist told The Pastel Journal contributing-writer Deborah Secor that pastels have been her medium of choice from the start. “I actually started with big, soft sticks of charcoal," she says, "but I’ve done pastels since I was five years old and was given some as a gift. Even as a kid I liked the immediate contact I had, getting involved physically with the pastel. It’s an extension of my hand."

The December issue ships to subscribers in early October and hits newsstands October 30.