It’s my daughter’s last day at her nursery today before moving to a new pre-school, so I’ve drawn them a picture. I haven’t worked out yet if it’s a young Pigsticks off to nursery with his dad, or Pigsticks taking his nephew, so I’ll let you decide.
pigsticks
Alice Anteater gets cuter
Characters change subtly over time – look at early Snoopy compared to the one we know now – and it’s always interesting to look back and chart the evolution of a character’s style.
Pigsticks and Harold have both evolved over the past three years. They’ve become cuter and a little less weighty, and the line has become more fluid. The other Tuptown characters have also grown-up – or grown down.
Alice Anteater is a nice example of this. I recently spent a day drawing her to get her right, and she seemed to get younger and cuter before my eyes. With that cuteness also comes playfulness, and suddenly I found myself knowing her better. She’s incredibly shy of other people, but when they’re not around she gets up to all sorts of things.
Here’s a before and after!
There’s still much of the old character there, but I think she’s now much more part of the Tuptown team.
Pigsticks of Arabia
I’ve been getting Pigsticks’ outdoor gear fixed in my head, and here he is in desert mode. My great grandfather was Lawrence of Arabia’s driver, so of course, Pigsticks would need to follow in his tradition!
Pigsticks and Harold go Rockclimbing!
Because, you know, Pigs and Hamsters like to climb mountains!
Avalanche! And Goats!
There will be goats. There will be an avalanche. There will be plenty of cake.
A pig and his forepigs
It’s Pigsticks, and he wants to go on an adventure, just like his forepigs.
Harold at the Discover Story Centre
I headed up to the Discover Story Centre in Stratford yesterday to run some workshops. It’s such a wonderful place, and the new Superheroes interactive exhibit is awesome!
I drew some yetis, vikings and, of course, Harold and Pigsticks. And the nicest thing was seeing the children draw their own Harolds and Pigsticks(s) later on. I haven’t seen people draw these characters yet, so it was a real thrill!
Here are a couple of them.
Harold and Pigsticks try out comics
I’m doing some samples of Pigsticks and Harold as a comic. It’s very much in keeping with the original stories (in words!) that I created about my headstrong Pig and willing Hamster – I guess they were quite script-based, so suit comics well.
Here’s one of the pages of Harold finding a parcel on his doorstep.
Stories always take a variety of shapes and form before they settle, so it’ll be interesting to see where this path leads.