Quentin Blake, the Illustrator

Quentin Blake has a marvelous website. At first glance, it’s very simple, but once you dwelve deeper you find that it’s full of games, his illustrations, links to where you can buy his work, a tutorial on how he goes about illustrating books, advice to the beginning illustrator, and videos about the illustration process.

One of my favorite things there is a slideshow of his materials and workspace. I think it’s always exciting to see where my favorite artists, and writers work! Just look at that assortment of watercolors and pencils. Lovely.

You do know who Quentin Blake is, right?

No? How about Roald Dahl…? No…? Yes…? Maybe..?

Whether you know Roald Dahl or not, you can’t have escaped his creations. (His rather strange and quirky website can be found here.) He wrote, among so many other things, the books of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Esio Trot, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, The Witches, …

And Quentin Blake illustrated a lot of them. Although Roald Dahl has passed away, every time I see a Quentin Blake illustration, I can’t help seeing the same peculiar, liveliness found in Roald Dahl’s stories.

I wonder if Mr. Blake is tired of only hearing about his connections with Roald Dahl’s books, because the illustrator himself also writes (and illustrates) his own picture books. Unfortunately, I’ve not had dwelved into them deeper, but the original drawings I saw at an exhibition of his were fantastic.

He is active outside of just illustrating. Having one the Children’s Laureate in 2002, he formed the House of Illustration: the center for all illustration, “about the art of illustration in all its forms. … A home for exhibitions of young illustrators, illustrators from the past, and … a lot of other portfolios and archives that we rarely see.” (source)

It often feels like illustration is an underappreciated art form. How many contemporary exhibitions are for more “normal” genres? Sculptures, paintings, photographs? An illustrator can use any of these means, and more, to create the little masterpieces that can be found inside of so many books. It can’t be that simply because the final product is a printed product, it loses all value.

But photography seems to be better appreciated, even in this age of digital photography where the development of the photographs and other mechanical processes become less necessary.

I hope Quentin Blake’s House of Illustration meets with all the success it deserves.

When I grow up, I want to be an illustrator too!