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Quentin Blake: How I Draw

an illustration of washerwomen washing a group of woodcutters

Illustrator Quentin Blake, who is most widely known for his energetic drawings for Roald Dahl’s books, generously shares his drawing process on his website and also in a series of videos.

I do a freewheeling sort of drawing that looks as though it is done on the spur of the moment. However even a single drawing needs a certain amount of preparation and planning. Most of the time I need to do a rough in which I find out how people stand, what sort of expressions they have and how they fit on the page.

Here are some of the videos he’s done. Quentin Blake draws a Hornswoggler:

Ten Minutes of Illustration (in three parts for some reason):

We Live in Worrying Times:

The illustration above is from The Wild Washerwomen.

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Sarah Richey

My kids have been poring over David Walliams books and I thought for sure the illustrations were by Quentin Blake until I looked closer. I wonder how he feels about Tony Ross?

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