HOW I DRAW Quentin Blake

In an exclusive interview, the legendary children’s illustrator tells STEVE PILL how he generates fantastical book ideas and creates his iconic line-and-wash drawings

- STEVE PILL

Born in Sidcup, Kent in 1932, Sir Quentin Blake is perhaps Britain’s best loved and most recognisable illustrator. After reading English at Cambridge, he began his career creating satirical cartoons for Punch and The Spectator.

Blake is, of course, best known for his drawings for kids, having illustrated more than 300 children’s books to date for authors including Sylvia Plath, Beatrix Potter, Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl. Most recently, he has self-published The QB Papers, a series of 20 short, themed collections of drawings.

Keen to give back, he taught at the Royal College of Art for 21 years, served as the inaugural Children’s Laureate in 1999 and founded the House of Illustration in London’s King’s Cross in 2014, which houses a permanent gallery dedicated to his work. He is also a patron of a number of charities, including The Big Draw, and was duly knighted for services to illustration in the 2013 New Year’s Honours list. Blake has been trying to retire since 1997.

MAKING A MARK

I suppose if there is a pattern to my day in the studio, it’s that I go and look at what happened yesterday first. I switch on a few Anglepoise lights and think about what I’m going to do. At about 10am, I come to my office across the square. That’s quite good because you’ve walked away from it and you can think about other things. And then I go back and have a bit of a session, stop for lunch for an hour and then go through the afternoon, probably to about 6pm.