Quentin Blake the Illustrator – Understanding Child Psychology.

It is said that children’s drawings reflect their minds and can be used to analyze their personality and character traits. Sir Quentin Blake, in his illustrations, employs a method of drawing in a childlike manner, with his rough, sketchy, and stylized drawings that every child can relate to. Perhaps that is what he had wanted all along. Thereby, we find that it was not about the child creeping into the mind of the adult, but rather the adult who tried to understand the mind of a child.

Scribbling and Drawing.

Since their developmental stage, the very scribbles of a child say something about them. In many cases, speech delay in toddlers is often treated by such techniques, which include encouraging them to scribble with crayons. Other times, cognitive behavior therapy is used to help children interpret images in a positive way. It is this untaught and self-learnt art that becomes the greatest mirror into their souls.

Over time, as children grow to observe more of their surroundings, they draw to represent the world in their own way. The scribbles and rough sketchy line work that they use at the earliest stage is what they are most comfortable. This is because they focus on the subject matter rather than the skill and explore their mediums freely in whatever way they chose.

Famous Characters

Perhaps the most famous collaboration for Quentin Blake was with Roald Dahl, author of world famous children’s books, with whom Blake worked for thirteen years. Some of their most popular books were, Matilda, The BFG, The Twits, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory amongst many others.

The Twits – If we take “The Twits” for instance, both characters are supposed to be filthy, disgusting and nasty by nature. He reinforces this by accentuating the features, making them slightly exaggerated the way a child would, like giving them extremely crooked noses, huge wide-open eyes, untidy long hair, crooked smiles and huge bushy eyebrows. He also makes them hunched, stubby and slightly deformed. He pays special attention to detail in the background as well, placing the characters amidst twigs, weeds and cacti to further symbolize their personalities.

Matilda – Matilda is a small girl, with a relatively short height and smaller features, including eyes very gentle looking eyes and a kind smile. The proportions and scale here are important factors to notice. The books she reads and has scattered around her are usually very large as compared to her timid size. This presents an insight into her humble nature, since books and knowledge play a major role in her life. On the front cover, we see that a soft light falls on her as she sits on a huge pile of books. This highlights her thoughtfulness, introvert nature and her intelligence most of all.

The BFG – Similarly, in the BFG, Blake creates a giant in a way that he looks not scary, but humble and friendly. He does so by giving him a kind, friendly expression with his gentle smile and eyes. His huge hands symbolize comfort that young children usually associate to with their fathers, in comparison to the tiny hands of the children. The clothes he wears are ordinary everyday clothes to symbolize that he is just like everybody else. What is most fascinating, however, is his huge ears. Research suggests that “Exceptionally large ears, unadorned by earrings, can indicate verbal abuse.” This is of exceptional importance since we find that this was a conscious decision made by Blake. It indicates the unpleasant things that the giant might have heard all his life about his gigantic size. This, along with other methods of analyzing children’s drawings is known as projective testing. It is a method often employed by Blake to give his characters a life that is understandable to the children.

Studies Relating to Blake’s Techniques

In Blake’s interpretation of human figures for the books, there is a certain psychology at play. According to researcher Claire Golomb, young children with no prior drawing experience tend to draw human figures spontaneously when given a pencil and paper. Furthermore, she goes on to say that children typically progress from scribbles to first representational shapes and forms, to complex representations of the human figure (Golomb, 2004, Harris, 1963). I.D Cherney et al suggest that as children develop, they experiment with their representation of the human figure and eventually arrive at a differentiated form that is specific and includes their personal drawing style. According to a study by  Tallandini  &  Valentini in 1991, “Very young children generate simple scribbles; as they mature and their dexterity also increases, representational intentions become more evident, although they still draw things as they are known rather than as they actually perceive them. Finally, as children become older, they start developing spatial and visual realism, including a consideration of perspective.”

Encouragement for Self-Expression

By his rough and sketchy line work, Blake successfully manages to use his drawings as a communication tool to establish a familiarity with the child. It also encourages children to draw and express themselves freely without the fear of drawing in the wrong or untidy way. All in all, Blake doesn’t just draw for children to read, he draws for adults to think too. With his methods, children have been encouraged to read, draw, and express themselves by giving them the confidence to project themselves without the fear of growing up. As Melanie McDonagh from the Daily Telegraph aptly puts; “Blake is beyond brilliant. He is anarchic, moral, infinitely subversive, sometimes vicious, socially acute, sparse when he has to be, exuberantly lavish in the details when he feels like it. He can tell wonderful stories without a single word, but his partnership with Roald Dahl was made in heaven. Or somewhere. The diabolic ingenuity of Dahl came into its own only when he wrote for children.  In conjunction with Blake, there was a kind of alchemy. I’ve never met a child who didn’t love Quentin Blake.”

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