Creating Hamish and the Worldstoppers

Illustrator Jamie Littler tells us more about creating the illustrations for Danny Wallace's new series, Hamish and the Worldstoppers.

Designing the characters for Hamish and the Worldstoppers was quite a challenge, not least because there is quite a large cast and I really wanted each character to look unique and individual. Hamish and his gang, the self-titled P.D.F. (Pause Defence Force) are the last line of defence against the monstrous Terribles, the villains of the story. Luckily, to help me along on my quest, I was sent some really useful descriptions from the writer Danny Wallace about how he saw the characters in his head, and I used these as a vital starting point.

Hamish
Being our main protagonist and the hero of the story, Hamish went through the most iterations of design. This is only a fraction of what I ended up drawing trying to get him right! Danny had said that Hamish isn't your typical hero: he is just an average ten-year-old boy and would blend into a crowd quite seamlessly. For this reason, despite the amount of face-shapes and hair-styles his design went through, I never had him looking too confident. He is quite unsure of himself and for this reason I never wanted him to be fully standing up straight and proud. Saying that, he needed to be appealing too, being the reader's point-of-view, and thus his image changed more into a boy who looked nervous yet quite cool, a boy who isn't too brave, yet could show extreme bravery when it was required of him (and believe me, it certainly will be!) One thing that had to be in the design, right from the beginning, was Hamish's distinctive 'H' hoodie, so at least that was his outfit settled on right from the get-go!

Alice
Alice was described as what you would expect the hero of the story to be. She is strong, tough and smart, someone you really wouldn't want to mess with. I went through a few designs for Alice too, particularly because she becomes a very important character throughout the story. I began with a tomboy image in my head: quite short hair and a no-mess attitude, she hasn't got time for messing around with her looks. This changed a bit, however, as she began to look a bit too hostile, and Alice certainly has her softer side too. She is a survivor, though, and as such wears very utilitarian clothes. I tried to give her a bit of a military/combat vibe with what she wears -after-all, she's the one who wants to take the fight to the Terribles!

Buster
I found Buster one of the easiest characters to design, I had an instant image of him in my head, mostly from the description of his thick glasses, tight tee-shirt and big afro! He is an all-round nice guy, if a bit odd at times, and is the muscle of the group. I designed him to always be standing proud and strong, a knowing-smile often on his face.

Venk
Described as being super-cool and laid-back, Venk's poses and clothes were actually slightly inspired by my brother, who is (or at least, thinks he is – snigger snigger) a general cool dude. Venk's darkest secret is that he would love to be in a boy band, and as such, I added the rock-edge of spiky armbands and skull tee-shirt to show Venk's attempts to hide this most heinous of facts.

CloverDanny described Clover as a small, kind girl who knew how to fend for herself, like a young Amanda Seyfried. I designed Clover as equal-parts angelic young girl and the tough, ready-for anything master of disguise she is! I really tried to put a lot of bounce and energy into her poses.

Elliot
Elliot was described as the brains of the outfit, very nerdy and slightly scruffy, as though he needed a bit more TLC, with the most expressive eyebrows you ever did see. I noticed I'd gone for quite a few 'rounded' boy faces in the gang, which is often a clear way to show that someone is quite young, but I wanted Elliot to look individual to the rest of the group, and as such tried to make his face a bit more angular.

The Terribles
I loved designing these guys. Big, scary, pale, disgusting, cloak-wearing monsters. I absolutely love drawing monsters. Need I say more?

Hamish and the Worldstoppers by Danny Wallace, illustrated by Jamie Littler (£6.99, Simon & Schuster) is out 12th March.