Children’s Books

The Author and the Illustrator

Books for children, in particular for younger children, make good use of illustration to help the storytelling.

Sometimes the illustration is used as a way of telling the story whilst other work is there to support the story being told.

The illustrations will be looked at time and time again and will form a strong part of the memory of that book for children long after they have moved on from the book.

One of the best examples of the relationship between author and illustrator can be found in the books and drawings of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake.

Today we are going to look at the work of both of them and the work that they produced together over 15 years.

The work each of them is so strongly linked with the other that it is difficult to think of one without the other.

This is in spite of the factor that Roald Dahl had written many books before Quentin Blake started to illustrate for him and the fact that Quentin Blake has worked with many other authors and is a successful author in his own right.

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.

Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander.

Dahl rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's best-selling authors.

In 2008 The Times placed Dahl sixteenth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Some of his notable works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, George's Marvellous Medicine, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The Big Friendly Giant.

Many of his books have been made into feature films for children but he also wrote screen plays for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, although both were rewritten and completed by other writers.

Roald Dahl created the character of the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The Child Catcher was the inspiration for Marilyn Manson's Smells Like Children EP.

In 2005, the Child Catcher was voted "the scariest villain" in children's books", despite not actually featuring in the original book.

In 2009, the Child Catcher was voted the seventh scariest character, in an adult poll carried out by Penguin Books.

Dahl began adapting his own novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was completed and rewritten by David Seltzer after Dahl failed to meet deadlines, and produced as the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971).

Dahl later disowned the film, saying he was "disappointed" because "he thought it placed too much emphasis on Willy Wonka and not enough on Charlie.” He was also "infuriated" by the deviations in the plot devised by David Seltzer in his draft of the screenplay.

This resulted in his refusal for any more versions of the film to be made in his lifetime.

Dahl's children's works are usually told from the point of view of a child.

They typically involve adult villains who hate and mistreat children, and feature at least one "good" adult to counteract the villain(s). These stock characters are possibly a reference to the abuse that Dahl stated that he experienced in the boarding schools he attended.

They usually contain a lot of black humour and grotesque scenarios, including gruesome violence. The Witches, George's Marvellous Medicine and Matilda are examples of this formula.

Roald Dahl would write in hut at the end of the garden.

He filled the hut with little objects which he thought might be inspirational or would appear somewhere in one of his stories.

Quentin Blake is one of Britain's best-loved and most successful illustrators and children's authors.

He has illustrated over 300 books with writers such as Michael Rosen, Russell Hoban, Joan Aiken, John Yeoman and, most famously of all, Roald Dahl.

For many years he taught at the Royal College of Art, where he was head of the Illustration Department from 1978 to 1986.

He has won many awards and prizes, and was made a CBE in 2005. He was appointed the first Children's Laureate in 1999.

Depending on he books and the illustrations required, Blake can do three or four or five or even six in a year. Coloured picture books are the most work intensive and take the longest time to produce.

Although the drawings look as though they are done quickly, he spends a long time planning what they are to be beforehand. He will do them over and over again if he hasn’t got someone's expression or features quite right.

When illustrating a book for another author, the process begins when the typescript appears from the publishers.

“In a sense I'm reading the story as if I were two people at the same time: a normal reader, who is relishing a good story for its own sake; and an illustrator on the look out for good subjects to draw, good moments.”

Sometimes he will choose to illustrate a moment, not because it will push the story forward at all, but just because it's such an enjoyable moment.

Sometimes the writer even makes changes to the story if the pictures seem to need it. In the original version of The BFG, the giant was wearing a big leather apron and knee-length boots.

When Roald Dahl saw the first drawings, he felt that the apron got in the way when the giant moved and ran and jumped, and that the boots were just dull. So together they sat down round the dining table to rethink the costume.

Quentin puts a rough drawing on the light box and on top of that a sheet of watercolour paper.

He then draws with old-fashioned dip pens.

"It's important that I can't see the rough drawing underneath too clearly, because when I draw I try to draw as if for the first time; but I can do it with increased concentration, because the drawing underneath lets me know all the elements that have to appear and exactly where they have to be placed."

When the drawing is done, he swivels round to a nearby desk where he sits to paint.

Blake likes enjoys illustrating the work of others but also producing his own books.

He finds illustrating a book by someone else exciting because he has no idea what he is going to find. It’s often something that he would never have thought of.

He work very hard at trying to draw in just the way that matches the book. Is the book very fantastic? Or very realistic? Or outrageously funny? Or sad? Asking these questions helps him produce the right illustrations.

When working on his own books, his tries to tell the story as much as possible with the images he produces. He then adds the minimum of text he needs to tell the story.

This is different to his illustrations for other writers.

When illustrating for others, he see’s his job as producing illustrations which support the text and add something for the reader but not to tell the story.

“The truth is I don't make much distinction between the drawings that I do for children and the ones I do for grown-ups. To me, it's all just drawing. “

Taken from Michael Rosen’s Sad Book

What was it like working with Roald Dahl?

What was so nice about Roald was that he actually wanted the pictures - he didn't like it if there weren't enough. Not all authors are like that.

We worked together for 15 years from 1975, until he died.

"What was so wonderful to me was that so many of Roald's stories were fantastical, unrealistic, so I was free to do what I wanted. I could let my style develop. Think of The Twits or the BFG - they don't really take place in a realistic world. They come from my head."

Quentin Blake's Message to Illustrators

I think it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that illustration is not a diluted form of painting.

In the world of book illustration, for instance, what corresponds to a painting is not one illustration but the whole sequence of illustrators, with implications of design, narrative, atmosphere, commentary.

The constraints are not necessarily a denaturing of what you do; they may require that you do something that you would not have discovered otherwise.

Two very interesting short films can be found on his website:

http://www.quentinblake.com/index.php/about-drawing/qb-tv

Taken from Michael Rosen’s Sad Book

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The Enormous Crocodile.

Children’s Book Illustration Project`