Dusting down Bob

Further to yesterday's posting of the original Bob sketch, I've had a rummage through what images I have from earliest development of the show. This is still one of my favourites and is, as you see it here, on a sheet of A1 from a whopping old sketchbook I had. Again, as with the Bob sketch, this is my first submission for Bob's Building Yard and, as anyone who is aware of the show through having young kids, is pretty much the one that we ended up running with. Designing Bob was, on the whole, a bit of a dream whereby very little needed changing. Sure, Bob had to be tweaked, but that was no big. The yard was accepted as is, as was Pilchard the Cat (which I'll post later).

I was stoney broke at the time I did this artwork and couldn't afford a second sketchbook. I kid you not. As such, I used the back of this page to sketch another Bob design, that of Pilchard. Then, unaware of future value of said artwork, I set about cutting the Pilcard picture out of this page! I had to fax the image to my producer and couldn't be chewed with getting a copy of it- it was urgent. Bottom right you'll probably see where I started to cut through before stopping, thinking twice and fortunately seeing sense.

You'll also see here my first design submission of Scoop here. I went for a more bulldoggish, trapjawed character, with that whole underbite going on. As we played with the designs, this changed into a more faithful adaptation of a JCB. Bottom picture is of Bob's house in a little greater detail. Again, all pictures copyright HIT Entertainment PLC/Keith Chapman.