Friday, November 28, 2008

Quentin Blake Speaks!

As you may or may not have noticed, I've changed up the side links a bit. I've also added "Look/See" - which is a splapdash compilation of art and illustration links.

I don't know why I never looked for Quentin Blake's official site before, but it's terrific. There is a part of his site called Fossicking. (I guess it's an original Quentin Blake word for fossils/relics?) He picks something lesser-known from his 60-year-long portfolio and shares it.

What's even better, though, is that he includes an audio track(!!!) and speaks his notes (or in today's case, reads from the book he's illustrated). I would even understand if Blake had no website - he is successful enough not to need one. However, to go ahead and create one, and then go above and beyond the call by adding audio? Audio on an illustrator's site? This is truly a surprising and delightful way to create a presence on the internet.

(Thanks to the Graphic Bandit for 1/2 the sites on the Look/See list.)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Genius, genius, genius! It's funny, Blake is like what the Neptunes are for music: a producer. It's almost like, in music, it's easier to hear the Neptunes in a song by a pop star than really zero-in on the musician. Same for Blake. No matter what author he collaborates with, it's like you can tell the "Blakeness" in the book/story. (He's the visual tinkerer; not the audio one.)

The audio is insane. I can only imagine new parents keeping their children in front of the computer, away from the keyboard, to have some Quentin Blake story time while mom and dad are off doing last minute chores around the house.

Way better than Bob the Builder babysitting. Way better!

Thanks for sharing.

Huzzah!

(Yes, it's back!)