Blake’s artistic development during his school years was helped by contact with the painter and cartoonist Alfred Jackson, the husband of Blake's Latin teacher, who encouraged his first submissions to Punch, resulting in his first publication at the age of 16. In the sixth form, the school's art teacher, the painter Stanley Simmonds, recognized Blake's talents and provided support and exposure to the work of other artists.[9]
During the 1960s, Blake taught English at the Lycée Français de Londres which cemented his long association with France and culminated in the award of the Legion of Honour. He taught at the Royal College of Art for over twenty years, where he was head of the Illustration department from 1978 to 1986.
By 2006, Blake had illustrated 323 books, of which he had written 35 and Dahl had written 18.[14][lower-alpha 1] To date, Blake has illustrated two of David Walliams' books and has illustrated Folio Society Limited Editions such as Don Quixote, Candide and 50 Fables of La Fontaine.
In the 1970s, Blake was an occasional presenter of the BBC children's storytelling programme Jackanory, when he would illustrate the stories on a canvas as he was telling them. In 1993, he designed the five British Christmas issue postage stamps featuring episodes from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Blake is a member of the Chelsea Arts Club.[15] He is patron of the Blake Society, Downing College's arts and humanities society. He is also a patron of "The Big Draw"[16] which aims to get people drawing throughout the United Kingdom, and of The Nightingale Project, a charity that provides art to hospitals.[17] Since 2006 he has produced work for several hospitals and mental health centres in the London area, a children's hospital (hopital Armand Trousseau) in Paris, and a maternity hospital in Angers, France.[18] These projects are detailed in Blake's 2012 book Quentin Blake: Beyond the Page, which describes how, in his seventies, his work has increasingly appeared outside the pages of books, in public places such as hospitals, theatre foyers, galleries and museums.[19] In 2007, he designed a huge mural on fabric, suspended over and thus disguising a ramshackle building immediately opposite an entrance to St Pancras railway station. The rendering of an "imaginary welcoming committee" greets passengers arriving on the Eurostar high-speed railway.[20]
Blake is a supporter of and ambassador for the indigenous rights NGO Survival International. In 2009, he said, "For me, Survival is important for two reasons; one is that I think it’s right that we should give help and support to people who are threatened by the rapacious industrial society we have created; and the other that, more generally, it gives an important signal about how we all ought to be looking after the world. Its message is the most fundamental of any charity I'm connected with."[21]
Blake is the Founding Trustee of House of Illustration, a centre in London for exhibitions, educational events and activities related to the art of illustration. He was also the subject of the first exhibition at this venue, entitled Inside Stories", which opened in July 2014. In August 2020, it was announced that the centre will be relocating to the 18th century Engine House at New River Head in the Clerkenwell area of London, and will be renamed the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.[22]
Besides children's books, Blake is also the designer of Ben, the logo of the shop chain Ben's Cookies.[23] He designed several illustrations for the story time segments for the Scottish TV series Squeak!.
In 2023, Blake was asked by Blue Peter to design a new Blue Peter badge which they have called their Book badge.
"The Box of Delights; or, When the Wolves Were Running" John Masefield, Illustrated by Quentin Blake (Farshore, 2014)
Blake has illustrated a score of books by Roald Dahl.[lower-alpha 1]
He also illustrated the British edition of Agaton Sax, a Swedish-language series of comedy detective novels by Nils-Olof Franzén (originally illustrated by Åke Lewerth, 1955 to 1978).
Agaton Sax and the Diamond Thieves, 1965
Agaton Sax and the Scotland Yard Mystery, 1969
Agaton Sax and the Max Brothers (a.k.a. Bank Robbers), 1970
Agaton Sax and the Criminal Doubles, 1971
Agaton Sax and the Colossus of Rhodes, 1972
Agaton Sax and the London Computer Plot, 1973
Agaton Sax and the League of Silent Exploders, 1974
Agaton Sax and the Haunted House, 1975
Agaton Sax and the Big Rig (extended), 1976
Agaton Sax and Lispington's Grandfather Clock, 1978
Other
The Learning Journey —National Curriculum, key stages 1 and 2, illustrated editions for parents
Three Little Monkeys 2016, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark
Three Little Monkeys Ride Again 2019, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark
Three Little Monkeys at Christmas 2021, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark
Three Little Monkeys and the Grand Hotel 2023, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark
For Mister Magnolia, which he also wrote, Blake won the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject.[28] For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel of experts named it one of the top ten winning works, which composed the ballot for a public election of the nation's favourite.[33] He was also a highly commended Greenaway runner-up[lower-alpha 2] for The Wild Washerwomen: A new folk tale, by John Yeoman (1979), and a commended runner-up[lower-alpha 2] for Clown (1995), which he wrote himself.[30] He made the Greenaway shortlist[lower-alpha 2] for Zagazoo (1998), which he wrote, and for Sad Book (2004) by Michael Rosen.
Blake won the Kurt Maschler Award, or the Emil, for All Join In (Jonathan Cape, 1990), which he wrote and illustrated. The award from Maschler Publications and Booktrust annually recognised one British "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other."[29]
Blake was awarded the Prince Philip Designers Prize in 2011, and received the Eleanor Farjeon Award in November 2012. This annual award administered by Children's Book Circle recognises outstanding commitment and contribution to the world of British children's books.[34] Blake was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours for his services to illustration.[35]
1 2 3 WorldCat reports the twenty works by Blake that are most widely held by participating libraries. They are seventeen books written by Roald Dahl, Great Day for Up! by Dr. Seuss (rank 5), Michael Rosen's Sad Book (rank 14), and Wizzil by William Steig (rank 18).
1 2 3 4 Today there are usually eight books on the Greenaway Medal shortlist. According to CCSU, some runners-up through 2002 were Commended (from 1959) or Highly Commended (from 1974). There were 99 commendations of both kinds in 44 years including two for 1979 (Blake highly commended) and two for 1995 (one highly).
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D. Martin, "Quentin Blake", in Douglas Martin, The Telling Line: Essays On Fifteen Contemporary Book Illustrators (Julia MacRae Books, 1989), pp.243–263
Quentin Blake, "Research from an illustrator's point of view", in Research in Illustration: Conference Proceedings Part II (Brighton Polytechnic) (1981), pp.25–61
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