What is the Magic Pencil?

The Magic Pencil is a British Council touring exhibition of illustrations selected by Quentin Blake, the distinguished children's author, illustrator and first Children's Laureate. The UK has a celebrated history of innovative book design and illustration.

The exhibition shows how today's illustrators reflect contemporary concerns with originality and force. Thirteen illustrators are included in the exhibition. Many are well known, others represent new and varied ways of approaching book illustration.

The exhibition opened in the UK at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in May 2002 and subsequently showed at the British Library in London from November 2002 to March 2003. It is now touring overseas.

A facsimile exhibition has also been produced that includes a selection of illustrations taken from the Magic Pencil exhibition. This is now available in 30 countries overseas.

Introduction by Quentin Blake

A book was published to accompany the exhibition with an introduction by Quentin Blake:

'If one can't expect always to find a show of original book illustrations such as this ready to hand, one can at least say that such a thing is not as rare as it once was; and that no doubt reflects an increased awareness of the art of illustration. To what extent is hard to qualify, and I can bring to the discussion only the tiniest anecdotal evidence - to the effect that when I was a child, though fascinated by drawings, I didn't have the concept of "an illustrator", and that nowadays children write to me expaining that it is something they want to be when they grow up, and do I have any tips about how to arrange it?'
Read Quentin Blake's Introduction in full.

British Library

At the British Library they developed a website alongside the exhibition. Thanks to the British Library the contents of that website are now included in this site.

BRITISH AIRWAYS

British Airways are sponsoring the Magic Pencil exhibition by providing 30 free air tickets to illustrators and educationalists running workshops around the world.