ABOUT THE IDEA
Here are some of my earliest sketches for Where’s My Teddy. I remember that just prior to drawing this I had a period in which it seemed the ideas had dried up; I wondered if I would ever do any more books. Not all story ideas work out, but when an idea starts to take off I get a specific feeling, like a sixth sense which lets me know I have found something which has the potential to go all the way and become a book.
This feeling is one of the most delicious parts of my job so after the creative block, when this feeling arose with the Teddy sketches, it was even sweeter than usual.
The Bear started out as a monster, but when I had the idea that the boy had lost his teddy and that it had got mixed up with the monster’s teddy I knew the monster should become a bear. The idea that a bear would have a teddy bear just seemed funny to me. When the rhymes came - Eddy, Teddy and Freddy, I knew the book was on its way.
ABOUT THE PICTURES
When I wrote Where’s My Teddy I was on holiday in a cottage in Wiltshire which was surrounded by fantastic woodland walks; this environment influenced my depiction of the woods in the book. The illustrations are done in watercolour with a brown crayon line. I chose red for Eddy’s t- shirt so he would show up well against all the green of the forest.
Thinking about it now, I can see how the teddy was based on my childhood teddy who was called Toasty on account of his colour. He even had the ribbon!