Cliff Wright ( Newhaven, 24 October 1963Cliff Wright
at Arts Brighton) is an

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

, book

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

and advertising artist. He has illustrated numerous books, specializing in illustrations of animals and children's books, most notably the second and third books in the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' series - '' Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' and '' Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' - and '' The Wind in the Willows''. He has also been an artist in advertising campaigns for numerous large organizations and corporations - including

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

and

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

. He has illustrated the ''Puppy'' series of board books by

Gerald Durrell Gerald Malcolm Durrell Order of the British Empire, OBE (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservation movement, conservationist, and television presenter. He was born in Jamshedpur in British Ind ...

, commissioned by the Beanie Baby manufacturer

Andrex Andrex is a British brand of toilet roll. It is owned by the United States, American company Kimberly-Clark. The "Andrex Puppy", a Labrador Retriever puppy that appears on the company's television advertisements, is synonymous with the brand. T ...

. He has designed numerous posters and cards and is noted for his illustrations of

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

s and

badger Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by the ...

s for children. Wright is an active campaigner for

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

with International Animal Rescue and has participated in numerous book signings and auctions to raise money to help the dancing bears of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Early career

Wright was born in Newhaven, England in 1963. He graduated from the

Brighton College of Art Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

in 1986. Wright developed wildlife-based watercolours and children's book ideas in the early phase of his career. In 1989, he published a self-written and illustrated picture book for children titled ''When the World Sleeps'' ( Hutchinson). This was runner-up in the Mother Goose Award competition, 1989-1990. He followed this up by two more highly successful illustration projects - ''"Crumbs!"'' ( Hutchinson, 1990) and ''The Tanglewood Troll'' ( Gollancz, 1993).

''Harry Potter'' illustrations

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

approached Cliff Wright for illustrating the British first-edition cover for the second ''

'' book. The cover illustration for the first book was drawn by Thomas Taylor, a young artist out of college. The popularity of the first book prompted Bloomsbury to select a more experienced illustrator, and hence Cliff Wright was chosen. Wright was the obvious choice for the cover illustrator of the third ''Harry Potter'' book as well. Wright was the first to illustrate the following ''Harry Potter'' concepts and characters: ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' (1998): * Hedwig the owl *The Weasleys' Ford Anglia *

Hogwarts Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional boarding school of magic for young wizards. It is the primary setting for the first six novels in the '' Harry Potter'' series by J. K. Rowling, and also serves as a major setti ...

School of Witchcraft and Wizardry ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' (1999): *The hippogriff Buckbeak * Sirius Black in his dog form Wright retains the rights to the illustrations. He refused to illustrate the fourth ''Harry Potter'' book after Bloomsbury lost his original front and back cover artwork for ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban''. The huge black market of the ''Harry Potter'' fandom has been rumoured to be the cause of the disappearance. He also sued

for offering insufficient compensation. The original artwork for the second book, ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'', went on auction at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

in 2001 but was unsuccessful at meeting the reserve price of £30,000. The work has since been acquired by investor Luke Heron on behalf of illustration investment company Storyboard Assets Plc for an undisclosed sum.Scotsman - Picture Perfect Storyboard Draws on its Assets
/ref> The original art for the first book raised £85,000 at auction.

Post-''Harry Potter'' work

Cliff Wright conducts an innovative drawing workshop annually, titled the Art of Seeing. Wright has illustrated numerous books for the publishing houses of Ladybird Books and

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, in the 1990s and 2000s. He has also written and illustrated the "Little Bear" series of board books from ''Templar Publishing''. He also illustrated the cover of the fantasy novel ''I Ribelli dell'Alianco'' (2023) by the italian author Marina Lenti.

Bibliography

*''When the World Sleeps'', ( Hutchinson, 1989) *''Crumbs!'' ( Hutchinson, 1990) *''The Explorers'', ( Hutchinson, 1992) *''The Tanglewood Troll'' ( Gollancz, 1993) *''Puppy Tales'' (written by

), (

, 1993) *'' The Wind in the Willows'' (written by

Kenneth Grahame Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer. He is best remembered for the classic of children's literature ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1908). Born in Scotland, he spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in ...

), ( Ladybird Books, 1994) *''The Flying Squirrel and Other Stories from the Woodlands'' (written by Frances Ball), (Peter Lowe, 1995) *''A Treasury of Classic Stories'' (written by E. Nesbit et al., co-illustrated by George Buchanan and David Barnett), ( Ladybird Books, 1995) *''Oxford Reading Tree: Stages 1–9: Rhyme and Analogy: Story Rhymes'', (written by Roderick Hunt et al., co-illustrated by Alex Brychta), (

, 1996) (TES award winner for an educational book) *''Henry's Kite'' (written by Miriam Moss, Cliff Wright), ( Hazar Publishing, 1996) *''This Way, Little Badger'' (written by Phil McMylor), ( Ladybird Books, 1996) *''The Star That Fell'' (by Karen Hayles), ( Ladybird Books, 1996) *''Sasha and the Wolfcub'' (written by Ann Jungman), ( Collins, 1996) *''Windswept'' (written by Miriam Moss, Cliff Wright), ( Hazar Publishing, 1997) *''Are We Nearly There?'' (written by Joan Stimson), ( Ladybird Books, 1998) *''Peter and the Wolf'' (written by

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

, retold by Nicola Baxter), ( Ladybird Books, 1999) *''Good Day, Bad Day'' (written by Kathryn White), (

, 2000) *''DK Share-a-Story: Are You Spring?'' (written by Caroline Pitcher), (

Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media cong ...

, 2000) *''When They Fight'' (written by Kathryn White), (

, 2002) *''My Wishes for You'' (by Adèle Geras), (

Piccadilly Press Bonnier AB (), also the Bonnier Group, is a Privately held company, privately held Swedish media conglomerate, media group of 175 companies operating in 15 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family. Background The company was founded in ...

, 2002) *''Bear series'': ''Bear and Kite'', ''The Three Bears'', ''Bear and Ball'' ( Templar Publishing, 2005)

References

External links

Official site of the artist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Cliff 1963 births Alumni of the University of Brighton English illustrators Living people