On Monday the 27th of August, I went to the Quentin Blake and Shaun Tan Comica event at the St Albans Centre in London, hosted by Paul Gravett.
Quentin Blake and Shaun Tan are two of my favourite illustrators, and both have influenced me in different ways. Like many others, I grew up with Quentin Blake, having his books read to me as a child, and enjoying his artwork reading Roald Dahl's books as I learnt to read by myself. I remember in school we had a conversation about him, and we all marvelled at how he seemed to draw things right first time, and that they were quite hard to copy – Now, I realise, because his lines are so fluid and instantaneous. They have always breathed so much joy for me. (I also relished in the delightfully revolting characters such as the Twits!)
I have many fond memories of my Dad reading 'Mrs Armitage' to us, and the phrase 'What this bike needs...' among other objects, became a phrase we still use in our family! I didn't actually realise there were other Mrs Armitage books until I met Quentin Blake for the first time last November at the South Kensington Children's Festival – And he said it was the only character he had returned to more than once!
So in anticipation of meeting Quentin again for another signing, I got a new Mrs Armitage book, 'Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave', where she has a brilliant tan! I will never grow out of being read to, I think it is a thing of great comfort for humans to hear stories told to them, no matter what age. And so I will be taking this new book down with me to Devon next time I go and and see my parents, and we can all listen to my Dad read about her latest adventure on the beach, which is very appropriate for our family too as we've grown up by the beach and coast, with camping holidays in Cornwall in the summer.
For those of you who have not heard of Shaun Tan, in short, his work will blow your mind. Many would have heard of him recently since he was awarded an Oscar for the film of his book 'The Lost Thing' – Which I am still yet to see! - (It is on my Christmas list!) Shaun Tan's work is outstanding, highly original, so, so beautiful, and incredibly moving.
His work is unlike anything I have ever seen before – and I am not only a huge fan and admirer of his mind blowing work, but also of his words about picture books, and how he believes that they are for all ages, not just for children. Which is something I feel very passionately about too.
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Shaun Tan and Quentin Blake getting ready to start the talk.
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When talking about our excitement and anticipation of the event, we talked about how their styles are very different, and wondered if Shaun Tan, (who lives in Australia), had seen much of Quentin Blake's work as a child, and also what they thought of each other's work!
All of these things were answered, the first one being the very first thing that Shaun Tan said!
The house was packed, and we all waited excitedly for it to start. Paul Gravett began the talk by introducing Comica and what they do, and then gave some great introductions to them both. Shaun Tan and Quentin Blake sat at a desk together in front of a screen projection, where first Quentin, then Shaun, ran a slideshow and talked about their work. They asked each other questions and discussed various topics of interest and intrigue together in between.
After a huge round of applause, it began, with Shaun Tan starting off the talk:
S.T - “I grew up with your work.” he said turning to face Quentin Blake and smiling. And tells us an illustration he remembers, “A Jam powered frog – Springy, like you could sense the jam in it! And I remember a teacher reading us The Twits and I was genuinely disturbed!” which made us all laugh.
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| Quentin Blake talking about his work. |
It was so wonderful to see both of their working spaces. I don't know if it's because I'm an illustrator that this feels particularly special to see, but I felt so lucky and privileged to be able to see into their secret worlds where the magic literally does happen. When things are going well, and everything is flowing, and you feel like your head is so full of ideas that it might burst – that feels like magic to me.
Shaun Tan tells us about how he works, and that he has a parrot called Diego which I think is brilliant! Such a good name for a Parrot.
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| Shaun Tan showing us pictures of his Studio and working space. |
S.T - “I collect odd things, I know they'll be useful one day.”
“I have boxes of stuff under my desk, which I use to start a collage. So if someone sends me a letter with an unusual envelope, that will go straight in the box.”
He expresses his dislike for the blank sheet of white paper when starting something – He said he prefers to “mess up the space first – it feels like breaking the surface tension.”
He showed us an image of his computer screen with some of 'The Lost Thing' artwork on it from his animation -
“I don't really enjoy working digitally – can't get the same lively lines and accidents that I can traditionally.”
He explains that he had to work digitally more with 'The Lost Thing' animation, but that he never draws directly into the computer.
“I want to feel some friction and I want messiness. Maybe some software can simulate it, but I tend towards control, so I want something to help me stop doing that. Working in biro in my sketchbook helps.”
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| Shaun Tan showing us some of his work. 1.) Panel from a piece for the Guardian 2.) Drawings from a Museum visit. |
When talking about getting ideas and the Illustrator's daily routine, Shaun Tan hits the nail on the head with a lot of Illustrator lifestyle factors I can definitely relate to:
“It's a very solitary thing. Bit of a weird lifestyle actually, you work strange hours sometimes.”
Shaun Tan said that “I don't really like sitting at my desk thinking, I tend to do daily chores to think about creative things.”
And also, that “So much of your time is taken up by running a small business – replying to emails...” and he jokes “answering emails about coming to the UK...
People don't realise.”
And the aspect I could relate to the most was this:
“If by 8pm I haven't done anything you can just forget it. I spend so much of the day worrying about it even though there was never going to be any end result – And I should have just relaxed!”
I really identify with this, as I am exactly the same! I have definitely got better at giving myself more time off, and in doing this helps to avoid those sort of days!
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It was wonderful to see that they had a genuine mutual admiration for one another, most prominently through the differences in their work. It was wonderful too, to see them express this so thoughtfully and personally throughout.
Tan spoke of how he admired Blake's looseness and ability to take on the blank white page with the confidence of a pro golfer (more on that later!) and Quentin Blake in turn expressed how much he admired Tan's realism for his imaginary creatures – and how his imagery is very believable because of this.
Q.B - “Because it is a drawing, part of you has to believe it – And if it was a photograph, you wouldn't believe it in the same way. Your brain will believe it, even if you're trying not to make it.”
Blake later goes on to tell Tan that his work is: “Immensely convincing, and very in synch with your way of drawing. Of course you have an incredible imagination, and you are able to render it with such conviction.”
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Tan talked about some of the difficulties he had when creating his beautiful wordless graphic novel 'The Arrival'. He said that he was initially going to do it with photography, but in the end he decided to draw it instead.
S.T - “But sometimes the drawings looked too good! Too much like a photograph, and so I had to go back in and rub bits out and add more lines in to make it look more like a drawing again.”
Tan also said that it started off as a book with words and was a lot shorter.
“And when I got rid of the words, it slowed down, and became timeless.
I never thought who the audience would be. But it turned out to appeal to a very wide audience. Really it's a book about transition – It can be about anything. The characters are nameless and we don't know where they're going to, or where they came from.”
He said that sometimes he would cut out the panels and rearrange them like a jigsaw puzzle.
Tan said he enjoys exploring people and their interactions with things that they don't understand. And that he enjoys exploring the theme of journeys “because I don't go on many myself! I'm such a stay-at-home, hobbit kind of guy.”
S.T - “Stories aren't based on a single idea, they're based on several ideas”
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I found it really interesting to learn that they both read English at University, not Art, and that they both began creating artwork afterwards.
Quentin Blake trained as a teacher, and Shaun Tan said that he originally wanted to be a writer. He told us how we was submitting manuscripts and they were getting widely rejected -
“I had been stapling my pictures on the front of the stories to get the editor's attention, and it was the pictures that got the attention, not the words.”
Tan said that he created 'The Lost Thing' because he wanted to break the mould of the 'death and mayhem' themes. And funnily enough, Blake said that he had the opposite experience! He was told “There's no funny bits in it I'm afraid” - and he said “Well I didn't mind that!”
Tan also let us see a couple of images from his new book that he's currently working on, which is about two Brothers, and the youngest one is always doing things wrong and breaking things – I am so intrigued to read the story and see more pictures from it, and see what it's all about!
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| Shaun Tan showing us a sneak preview of his new book. |
Tan spoke of his creative process, and oil paintings in particular - “Often looks terrible in the beginning – I create it in many layers like developing a photograph, and I am convinced of it by the end. Watercolour is very unforgiving – if you make a mistake you can't go back. Oil can be changed over the top."
Shaun described this process as “practising on the page”, rather than practising for years and years and then creating the perfect lines.
And to our delight and intrigue, Tan said that he believes there are two types of illustrators:
'The Sedimentary Rock' – Where you build layers and layers on the same image and work on it and practise as you go.
And...
'The Golf Swing' – Practising for years for that perfect single swing, (or in this case, line and illustrations!) with all of that experience behind them building up to it.
As the talk came to a close, Paul Gravett asked if any of us had any questions to ask. I have always been very interested in Shaun Tan's fascinating essays on the subject of picture books and the meanings, symbolisms and themes he imbues them with. Having learnt that he studied art academically, I asked if that influenced his work at all.
He said that we have to be able to talk about our work and often explain it to others, so have to make up a lot of the meaning later.
He said, at the time of creating it, “It's about the emotion at the time.”
And as he said in his essay, when looking back at his work in retrospect, he enjoys finding more and more meaning in the stories each time he re-reads them.
The talk finished with Tan saying of Blake's work:
“The drawing is the object, not a represented version of it. The character is those lines, they're not separable.”
I really like that.
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After the talk and a resounding applause, we all sat on the edge of our seats in anticipation for two of the world's greatest illustrators to start drawing together! They had a camera set up over their drawings so we could see their drawings as they created them.
The first word, which was selected by Dave, was 'Disguise'.
Seeing the pictures come to life in front of us as they drew them was pretty much a dream. We were all laughing, and completely enthralled and captivated by the magic of two such words-can't-quite-describe phenomenally fantastic illustrators drawing together.
The next word was 'gluttony', and then to make it more specific 'sausages', and so began the sausage based gorge fest! Quentin Blake drew a rotund fellow standing with his mouth open, eating a string of sausages that appeared from a dubious looking hole in the ground! Shaun Tan drew two baby birds in a nest, one with a beak absolutely full to the brim with a giant sausage bigger than his head!
The third drawing that they completed together was based on two words from the audience - “a rubbish party” and “snails”.
But I think it looks like quite a fun party personally! And I think they'd be at home in Tan's 'The Lost Thing's wonderful land of miscellany, or one of Blake's joyous, colourful gardens.
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| Shaun Tan and Paul Gravett, showing Tan's 'Q' Painting he made for Quentin Blake, standing for Quail and Quentin! |
After that we queued up eagerly to get our books signed! I was delighted to be able to have a chat with Tan and he very kindly drew me a cat! Which I will frame up and treasure always :) Thank you so much Shaun!
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| Shaun signing Dave's Book |
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| Shaun Tan and I. |
I would like to thank Quentin Blake, Shaun Tan, Paul Gravett and the whole Comica team for putting this event on and entertaining so many of us, it was so fantastic!
Sounds like the most interesting and fun event! “If by 8pm I haven't done anything you can just forget it. I spend so much of the day worrying about it even though there was never going to be any end result – And I should have just relaxed!” - so true, love it!
Thank you Rachel, yes it really was I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I like that bit too - I think it really helps to recognise those days and just call it quits, then at least you can give yourself some time off to relax instead! I always do loads more the next day after a break that I would have otherwise :)
Wow so jealous, I can't believe I missed this. Shaun Tan, what a talent. The animated version of The Lost Thing is great, make sure you leave that Christmas list somewhere very visible!! Thanks for writing such a fab post about it!
Dear Emma,
Thank you sincerely for your excellent blog. I'm in Melbourne, Australia and would have given my eye teeth to be there to see this event. Your detailed recollection is fantastic for those who couldn't be there due to the tyranny of distance! I am a school teacher and have been trying to lure Quentin to Australia for many years. I really appreciate the trouble you have gone to... Regards, Peter
Hello Ella, you are most welcome! I am really happy to hear that you enjoyed reading my post so much.
Yes! I cannot wait to see the animation!
I'll make sure you tape my list to myself and walk around with it on me for a month ;)
All the best
Hello Peter,
That is a really wonderful thing to hear, thank you very much and I'm really happy that I could provide a detailed portal into the event for people who could not attend. I just couldn't stop making notes! There was so much wonderful information coming from both of them.
I hope that Quentin can one day make a visit there, or you can come over to England some time and attend one of our book festivals and meet Quentin in person!
Thank you again for your truly lovely comment, it makes me really happy to hear that it has been so well received!
Emma