Standing on the shoulders of giants: Using Gentleman and Blake as initial references for my new project.
Our week in Cornwall at the end of May marked a turning point for me. A desire for a more sustainable, healthy way of working led to a significant change: leaving my Margate studio and setting up a home workspace, limiting my tools to pen, pencil, and watercolour. This shift has been incredibly liberating.
But what to do with this new setup? I found inspiration in my Cornwall project, where working from photographs helped me manage my energy levels better. It also became clear looking back over the last 16 years that "place" has always been a central theme in my work, whether through photography or illustration.
So I’ve started a new project illustrating daily life here in Westgate-on-Sea, our new home town by the sea on the North Kent coast. By focusing on a local environment, I aim to delve deeper into a place rather than just skimming the surface.
How does this relate to David Gentleman and Quentin Blake? I recently acquired physical copies of their books, "London, You're Beautiful" and "The Quentin Blake Book." Both artists are in their 80s and 90s, yet they continue to produce remarkable work. I already owned the Kindle version of Gentlemans book but was gifted physical copies of both for my birthday at the beginning of this month and I’ve just finished them.
If you don’t know either or both of them, I’ll give a brief introduction but encourage you to get to know them better. Gentleman’s diverse background in printmaking, watercolour, and design saw his career cover everything from postage stamps to large-scale murals spanning whole platforms of Charing Cross station. Blake is renowned for his pen, ink, and watercolour illustrations, particularly his collaborations with Roald Dahl, Michael Rosen and Michael Murpurgo. Their connection for me is that both artists demonstrate a loose, expressive style that I find incredibly inspiring.
Finding My Own Voice
Gentleman’s book resonated with me deeply. You can sense Gentlemans’ love of the architecture and history it reflects in London but couples this with portraits of strangers in the street alongside more intimate studies of family at home. I wonder if I would have embarked on this approach without his influence. For years, I’ve captured places through photography, but drawing offers a new perspective as demonstrated below by a small selection of the work from Gentleman.
All images below (C) David Gentleman and used here for illustrative purposes only.
Gentleman’s ability to convey feeling through a few marks and washes of colour is something I aspire to. Case in point is he diptych of the two towers above - one with detail and one with the barest of marks to show window cleaners at work.
While Gentleman's work is grounded in observation, Blake's imagination often takes centre stage. His ability to transform the familiar into something extraordinary is captivating. However, not everything he does is rooted in the fantastical. His portrayal of Michael Rosen after the death of his son is the one image from the book that will stay with me forever. His ability to say so much with such economy is breathtaking as is his ability to use simple tools to create atmospheric images.
All images below (C) Quentin Blake and used here for illustrative purposes only.
Blake said in Chapter 1 of the book by Jenny Uglow, that it took him time to realize that he didn’t need to sweat over a perfect drawing and, in fact, his roughs were livelier and more direct. I am seeing progress in both expected and unexpected ways by adopting a similar approach. With each drawing, my confidence grows and by relaxing into it and focussing on keeping moving rather than seeking the perfection in each drawing, I can see iterative improvements each time I sit down to draw.
By immersing myself in the world around me and drawing inspiration from masters like Gentleman and Blake, I'm excited to see where my illustration will evolve. It’s not about mimicking either or both of them but more about picking bits of their approach I like and also respecting the lineage that I follow on from.
I aim to update the Westgate-on-Sea gallery every day or so so either pop back regularly or sign up to my newsletter for a monthly reminder.
I also urge you to check out the work of both illustrators at their respective websites: