Leigh Hobbs is an artist and author, best known for his children’s book characters Old Tom, Horrible Harriet, Mr Chicken, Mr Badger and the Freaks.

Leigh is pleased to present a series of short films where he talks about the ideas behind each of his beloved characters, and where the inspiration comes from. Then Leigh shows us, step by step, how he draws each character – a line here, a line there.

The “That’s Me” series of films provides a rare glimpse into the former children’s laureate’s studio and insight into his creative process. They offer a great way for children to engage with, and be inspired by Leigh‘s work. He even shows us original drawings from old sketchbooks where he first experimented with ideas.

The films embrace a series of positive themes, including celebrating individuality both in personality and expression, acceptance of mistakes and differences, personality types and moods and how practice pays off. Leigh always makes mistakes, and sometimes he has to draw a character over and over until he gets it just right.

These films (5 x 2-5 mins) are designed for teachers, families and kids of any age, anywhere around the world. They can be watched just for fun, or used in classroom settings as springboards for activity (draw your own Leigh Hobbs character) and follow-up discussion (around identity, acceptance and creativity).

And as an optional extra – you can book Leigh for a live classroom Zoom chat for a group discussion about the whole process. Leigh used to be a school teacher, so he’s well acquainted with chatting to kids, and he loves to answer questions and celebrate everyone’s individual approach to drawing his characters.