Quentin Blake has been illustrating for years. Although he studied English at Cambridge, it was drawing and painting which provided him with such a long-standing career. Born in 1932, his first drawings were published when he was only 16; he went on to draw for several magazines and became head of the illustration department at Royal College of Art for 8 years until 1986. However, he is most well known for his illustrations of various children's books, especially his collaboratively work with Roald Dahl. During the 1990s he became involved with exhibition curating in London and Paris, and has also written and illustrated his own books.
The media he uses is simple; a light box, watercolour paper, watercolour paints, waterproof black ink and dip pens. The images I've found for contextual research are of countryside or rural landscapes and trees. My own practise is looking at trees and woodlands, and my preferred choice of materials and media is paper, watercolours and black fine liner pens. Quentin Blake is a very appropriate artist for the contextualisation of my work. His images are more colour and paint orientated than mine and he draws people and figures more often than landscapes. Yet I find his landscapes intriguing; some may argue against their unrealistic characteristics and simplicity but I think the selective amounts of paint and ink and allowing parts of the white paper to show through, creates perfect light in the image.
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