Snape's goatee? NOOooooooooo!

[erinellii]

No: HPFGUIDX 79677

A few months ago, when I first joined this group, my attention was 
drawn to a picture of Professor Snape, drawn by J.K. Rowling, which 
is in the photos section of HP for Grownups.  In it, he has a 
goatee.  This startled me, as never in my wildest dreams had I ever 
pictured a bearded Snape.  He's never described as having one in the 
books, right?
I decided that JKR must have drawn that picture before she got down 
to seriously writing the first book, and she'd changed her mind about 
Snape's looks since.  
But then OoP came out, and I couldn't help but notice there was a 
picture, drawn by the American illustrator Mary Grandpre, of Snape in 
it which was too close to the Rowling drawing for comfort.  The 
picture, at the beginning of the chapter "Occlumency", shows Snape as 
about the height of Professor Umbridge, bald on top (I ask you!), and 
with the goatee.  He and Sirius are shown having their little almost-
duel over Snape teaching Harry occlumency. 
  Now I'm more likely to imagine Snape as the Alan Rickman type 
(except A. R. is too old, Snape is only supposed to be 36 or 37 in 
OoP) and in fact, the picture of Sirius at the beginning 
of "Occlumency" is more my idea of what Snape looks like (maybe a 
little longer nose).  So someone, please ease my mind!  JKR doesn't 
really want Snape to look like a short, fat, balding guy with a 
goatee, does she?  Had I mentioned the Mary Grandpre pic looked kind 
of chubby as well?  How does Mary Grandpre decide what to draw?  Does 
it get approved at all by JKR before it is included in the book?  
What is up with this? 


Erin