I recently went to the House of Illustration where I saw Quentin Blake’s exhibition on ‘The Tale of Kitty-In-Boots’. I was stunned and inspired by Blake’s use of watercolour and sketchy ink drawings. His drawings are scribbly and quick but his control is fantastic, he creates lovely characters and uses soft watercolour to make his drawings come to life. It was a real treat to see this original pieces first hand and get a chance to look close up to the watercolour pieces.
The exhibition of Quentin Blake’s original illustrations for The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, were created for the recently re-discovered Beatrix Potter manuscript, published in September.
The book about ‘a well-behaved prime black Kitty cat, who leads rather a double life’, features classic Potter characters including Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Mr Tod re-drawn by Blake.
The exhibition features Blake’s 50 illustrations for the book, a sketchbook and reference material. It also contains the original Beatrix Potter manuscript and one of Potter’s only two illustrations for the book, on loan from the V&A.