A few years ago, I did a lot of drawings
in bed, either in the morning or at
night, because I’d wake up too soon.
It comes fairly naturally to me to
think in series. I found I was getting
these sets of drawings and I thought
I could afford to print them myself.
They became The QB Papers. It’s all
new drawings, everything has been
done since September 2018. There
are about 20 to 30 drawings in each
one and I could do a set of those in
bed, you know? Some ideas have
more potential than others, there are
changes of style as well. Publishing
them was 100% self-indulgence
initially, but it was nice to do
something people didn’t expect.
I’m not quite sure how an idea
begins and it’s not always the same.
I’m usually sat there with a pad,
thinking what would be nice to draw.
If I’m drawing in a sketchbook, the
first two or three pages are just
drawing almost with a general idea
and then I sort of find out what it is,
if you see what I mean. I get two kinds
of sketchbook, the same A3 format.
You can buy them from Librairie
Le Page in South Kensington, they’re
really for French school children!
I set myself little challenges. With
Deliveries from Elsewhere [book five
of The QB Papers], I had this idea of
deliveries, it seemed interesting
somehow. I did a few drawings of a
man delivering an antique vase and
a bag with 50 ducks in them. Then I
went through the things people tend
to buy through the post: self-assembly
furniture, ready meals, and so on.PAPER AND PENS
I’m very conscious of materials. Most
of the time I use Arches cold-pressed
watercolour paper and I couldn’t live
without it. The other day I’d run out
and I had heart palpitations. Almost
every illustration is done on that. It’s
good because it takes pen drawings
very well and it also takes watercolour- that’s the cold-pressed aspect.
My initial rough drawings are mostly
in Pentel fountain pen, or even pen
and ink sometimes. I then put those
roughs on a lightbox and lay a sheet
of Arches 185gsm paper on top for
the final drawing – thicker than that,
you can’t see through it. Artists
normally recommend a 300gsm
paper for watercolour, but I’m only
tinting bits and there’s enough paper
around the drawing to hold it together.
I draw with a Waverley nib.
I generally have two: one will have ink
that has dried on it, so it gives you a
slightly thicker line. In The QB Papers,
I did one which is called The Art of
Conversation. They were meant to
be very simple drawings so I thought
it would be nice if they were slightly
coarse because there wasn’t going
to be much drawing or delineation.
It’s a diagram of what’s happening
in a way, so if you use this clotted
nib it adds texture and interest.
The good thing about the 185gsm
Arches on the lightbox is that you can
see through it but not terribly well.
FAR LEFT Teabags and Grandmother from
2019’s Deliveries from Elsewhere
LEFT AND CENTRE Sennelier Portraits, 2020
TOP RIGHT The Lost City for Greenpeace’s
‘Protect the Oceans’ campaign, 2018
RIGHT Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets, 2010© QUENTIN BLAKE