About the Idea
I wanted to capture the power of those two little words YES and NO.
It seems to me that being able to say ‘No’ is just as important as saying ‘Yes’ and Mum’s reaction to Bobo’s trying out of the word ‘No’ for the first time reflects her understanding of this. While Bobo has his tantrum Mum backs off and allows him get on with it (whilst watching over him from behind the trees). The enforcement of her ‘No’ to Bobo being in the water would not have helped the situation at all (he would probably have gone further into his ‘No’ resulting in a stalemate situation). You could say that Mum saying ‘Yes’ to Bobo’s ‘No’ in the end helped turn that ‘No’ (to bedtime) into a ‘Yes’. Some things are best said in words and pictures!
About the Pictures
In Yes I used gauche paint for the backgrounds which gives wonderful texture to artwork. The biggest challenge was painting the water which appears in two thirds of the book - water glistening, rippling, splashing and reflecting.
The characters are drawn with my trusty W.H. Smith fountain pen which has served me well through all the Duck books as well as Tall and Hug. The line is thick when you press hard, medium when you don’t press hard and fine when you use the reverse side of the nib (especially good for the texture of Bobo’s hair). At three pounds fifty that pen was a good investment!