Introducing Owlbert, the Reluctant King

Meet King Owlbert

A video of this baby pygmy owl came up in my feed on Bluesky (where the algorithm is random and weird) and when I learned he had been been named King Owlbert by the Alaskan rescue caring for its injured wing, I knew he had to become part of the Squishy Blueberry world. 

Image from Alaskan Raptor wildlife rescue.

Baby owls are already absurdly cute, as are names ending in “-bert,” but with the No Kings day protest still in the air, it also feels timely.

King Owlbert: A young owl who has no desire to lead or be king. He’s constantly running away from people who seek his direction, tossing his crown aside, only for friends to keep bringing it back to him.

I’m going to try to avoid giving him the cliche “unwilling child king to noble responsible king” arc, though he might grow into a decent delegator.

As we know, those who aren’t power-hungry often make the best leaders because of their humility and ability to listen and empower others. But for a pre-school show, the focus will be on the silliness of it.

Made in Procreate

I’ve actually fallen in love with baby owls before, back in the mid 2010s. Below are some of the images I saved over the years. Not sure why I never made one an official character until now, but glad the inspiration finally came.

Bringing Owlbert to Life

The next step is to send this concept to a brilliant character designer and illustrator who can really bring him to life and capture some the energy from the photos.

My art tends to be 2-D and basic - which works OK for my stick-figure Perfect Sense drawings (where I focus on facial expressions), and my symbolic affirmation art (which is more about color and feel). However, for character animation, my skills leaves much to be desired - and that’s where the character pros come in. 

Images collected over the years from online. The bottom right two frames are an owl named Forest.

P.S. A Short Note about the “Fly by the Seat of the Pants” Method

I originally shared this post in my Drawn to Life Substack, under the Squishy Blueberry tab. And initially, I felt a bit self-conscious that my first post about Squishy on Substack…isn’t even about Squishy Blueberry(!) Of course, it’s in his world, but it’s not an image of the titular character or even one of the original characters from my picture books or early world building. Instead it’s a brand new character still in concept art mode.

I even thought about posting an introduction to Squishy Blueberry first, and decided against it.

Why? Well, first, I don’t think it’s that important. It matters more in mind symbolically than in reality or for anyone just learning about him.

But also, I don’t like doing things that feel forced. Most of what I create, write, draw, post, etc. - and when I share it - is off the cuff and inspired. And for my cultural and political commentary this approach has worked well. Being right there on the pulse with everyone else, just giving voice to things other are feeling - seems to be appreciated in its raw form. Perhaps, for my creative work, even though it’s not as tied into current events, this method may work too.

Not that I never do things when not inspired - for types of work I need to do but resist, I have accountability groups to keep me on track. But for the art and writing that I enjoy and comes naturally, if I’m not feeling the feeling of the art, it’s really awkward. Intuitively this makes sense, since are is often a feeling. But there may be a balance. Everyone has their own way.  Maybe trying to structure my creativity isn’t something to strive for. Maybe at some point this will change. But for now I’ll keep going as is.