The Semi Finals!

We got the brief for the next round of the Global Talent Search competition on the same day that I found out I had made the top 50. I glanced at it briefly, but as I had a bit of other work on, I just had to put it aside for a few days.

The brief was to design an animal character  with human attributes for a child’s t-shirt. My first thought was wow, this is such a wide brief, I can really do anything, how on earth am I going to decide where to start? Luckily my little boy Toby came to the rescue. Once I told him about the next brief, he was desperate for me to design a t-shirt for boys. Something cool, he said. I don’t do much stuff for boys, and I thought this was a good opportunity to challenge myself, and it also helped to narrow down my options.  I then decided to stick to woodland animals, as they’re my favourite kind of animals to draw.

In the end I didn’t have many days left to complete it. So I started off doodling on sheets of paper. It’s how I start all of my projects. I doodle away, writing random words down as I’m thinking of the possibilities. I try not to judge or be to critical of whats coming out on the paper. And with any luck after a few pages, ideas start to flow. I drew foxes and bears, on adventures and exploring the world around them. Then I drew a fox that accidently ended up looking like a badger – and somehow Mr Badger the Super Sleuth kind of grew from there. Oh, I do love badgers.

I had a lot of fun thinking about what he’d wear – his tweed trousers and his brogue boots. And all the things he might have with him – his magnifying glass of course, a packet of moustaches for disguising himself, and his handbook on How To Decipher Clues. A must for any detective.

Within the brief we were also allowed to include ideas for any other accessories that the art might work on – and I immediately knew I must design the case for a Super Sleuth Detective Kit. My little boy would love this!

Once it was finished, Toby gave it his final approval, and declared it to be cool. And with that, I pressed the submit button. And my final piece was done.

Out of the 50 semi finalists, 5 will be chosen by the judging panel to go through to the final round, and 1 peoples choice will also be chosen, this will be the piece with the most votes.

So if you would like to vote for my piece, please follow *this link* and head to the online gallery to cast your votes!! There are lots of fabulous pieces of work there. But it would be super lovely if you liked mine enough to vote for it. Thankyou!