Q U E N T I N B L A K E :The collaboration between Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake is one of the most famous children's book author/illustrator collaborations. Blake's illustrations of Dahl's characters such as The Twits, The BFG and The Enormous Crocodile have delighted readers with his imaginative and humorous designs. Dahl and Blake first collaborated together in 1976 on Dahl’s ‘The Enormous Crocodile’, which was later published in 1978. Extending past their professional relationship, Blake and Dahl became wonderful friends and continued to work together on all of Dahl’s books except for ‘The Minpins”.
Blake’s iconic illustrations were both representational and strong, and could easily be recognized as Dahl’s characters. Both were font and in awe of each other’s talents and Dahl once quoted Blake to be “the finest illustrator of children’s books in the world today”. Blake appreciated the artistic freedom he had to create characters such as The Twits and The BFG as “Roald’s stories were fantastical, unrealistic… I could let my style develop”. That said however, Dahl famously sent Blake a pair of smelly and dirty old sandals in the mail and suggested him to use them as a model for The BFG’s shoes- Blake did. |