Little known fact: Ollie was born at the beach. Let me explain.
I wrote The Last Red Crayon a number of years ago. Then, more recently, came the moment to dust it off. Once I began refining it for publication, the need to shape the visuals for the character, Ollie, became more and more immediate. That's when I chose to model him after a close friend from back in my primary school days. The choice was purely about his temperament and single-mindedness. There was, however, a small problem: The further I went, the greater the distance grew between how I wanted to portray the character in words and his physical appearance.
I struggled. And then it happened. One day, I saw this little kid at the beach — maybe 5 or 6 years old — who, by all appearances, had had a blast playing in the sand and ocean, and was now heading home with his family. His mom had dried him off — his hair still in a ruffled mess — and put a yellow hoodie on him that clearly belonged to an older sibling. In my head, I thought, "How adorable," but then a few steps later, it hit me: "THAT'S HIM...that's the look!" From memory, I sketched him out and it worked.
I picked up my pencil again and began replacing the original shaggy brown hair, round, silver wireframe glasses, and our navy primary school sweater (badge on the left chest), with blonde, spiky hair, square, thick-framed glasses, and what will ultimately become an iconic yellow hoodie design. Ollie, as we know him today, was born.
— Michol
P.S. The Tags character is a bit closer to home.
