Play with Cliffe

Cliffe Castle Museum contacted me a while ago (I can’t tell you when, as the email has disapparated) – They were getting the builders in to construct a new children’s playground, and asked my permission to put Cliffe the Caterpillar on it!

I gave the go-ahead, and they proceeded to lay down some outlines with thermoplastic. By the time August rolled around, news broke that the playground was ready to open to the public. I eventually found some time to stop by in a very wet and grey October…

cliffeground8
Family faces blurred out.

Many, many Caterpillars

A scant few days after my last post, I was offered a commission!

Cliffe Castle museum are revamping their materials, including the boards for a nature trail. They decided that their rather “dry” images for the children’s sections weren’t cutting it anymore. “Cliffe the Caterpillar” would be born!

Cliffe the Caterpillar - first sketches
Initial sketches. Caterpillar #9, ‘The Devil’s Hotdog’, was quickly dismissed.

The first stage of this project was to produce images of a caterpillar’s four life stages… to go on the five information boards. Ah. Easily solved by adding “emerging from chrysalis” as the fifth picture.

I provided some rough inks of a range of caterpillars, eggs and chrysalides to choose from, allowing them to mix & match parts for their ideal mascot. Once the final design was sorted, the chosen images could be polished up supremely.

Cliffe the Caterpillar - Some concept inks

We’re still hammering out who owns the rights to the final images, so i’ll play it safe and show you one Cliffe, a bit faded & through a watermark:

Cliffe The Caterpillar, life stage 2 (watermarked)

The project continues into October, with the creation of Cliffe reading a map, eating leaves and suchlike.
*Yes, that does mean there is Cliffe The Caterpillar The Butterfly. Don’t be too logical.