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'A picture book has an effect on a reader not so very different from a good lesson.' Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and read English at Downing College Cambridge, followed by a postgraduate teaching diploma at the University of London and a part-time course at Chelsea School of Art. For ten years he was Head of the Illustration Department at the Royal College of Art. He acknowledges a debt to Brian Robb, who gave him his first part-time teaching job there. ‘Knowing him really changed my life.'
He has always made his living as an illustrator, starting off drawing cartoons for Punch while he was still at school, and later for the Spectator. In addition to his own books he has also collaborated with other well-known authors such as Joan Aiken and Russell Hoban. To many of us he is most associated with Roald Dahl's children's books.
Quentin Blake is one of the UK’s most popular and best recognised artists. He has been drawing ever since he can remember. His first book was published in 1960 and since then he has illustrated many more. His drawing style is perceived as funny but before he agrees to illustrate a book he feels he has to relate to the humour within; the things in life that are funny - people's gestures, reactions, the way they do things. 'You don't have to fall over to be funny.'
Once voted ‘the illustrator's illustrator’, Quentin is the winner of numerous awards, including the Kate Greenaway, the Kurt Maschler, the Smarties and the Hans Christian Andersen. Quentin recently completed a successful two-year tenure as the first Children’s Laureate.
On his work'I think my University time has stood me in quite good stead. I get a lot of pleasure and stimulus from reading and illustrating other people’s writing. What I learned about teaching helped to tell me something about how books work. When I got into books I discovered lots of other aspects that also sustained my interest – trying to imagine the characters and the ways they move and the kind of expressions they make, and then getting the right kind of drawing for the particular book, and disposing the pictures properly so that they can help each other and make a good sequence.'
'It was while I was doing magazine drawings that I came upon the possibilities of spontaneity – that you didn’t have to be frightened. That kind of drawing is the basic act that for me makes illustration so attractive. I use a light-box constantly. I put a sheet of watercolour paper over a rough and then, because I can see where everything has to go, I can draw as if I were making it up for the first time – actually feeling the gestures and expressions with the pen.'
1968 Patrick
Listen to Quentin Blake's life story at the People's Archive
Random House profile of Quentin Blake
Random House teaching suggestions for Quentin Blake's works
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