artwork – James Foley

Collaborative artwork with kids

I’m honoured to have some artwork included in the 2026 SQUIGL calendar! But the artwork isn’t just mine – it’s a collab between me and a kid living in regional Queensland called Will Thomas.

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I was given Will Thomas’ excellent whiteboard drawing of a toucan …

… which I worked up into a very scribbly rough …

… then a more detailed rough.

My next step was a colour test, which I liked …

… but once I had my final artwork together, I felt like mucking around with the colours.

I tried a purple background instead, which helped the toucan beaks to pop.

Finally I added a sunrise in the background and some shading, and voilá – the artwork was finished!

Big thanks to Will for the excellent initial drawing – I hope you like how it turned out!

More about the calendar

The 2026 SQUIGL Calendar is a fundraising initiative by Andy Geppert’s SQUIGL Club, an online drawing group for kids living in remote Queensland.

All calendar sales support sending these remote community kids to visit regional writers’ festivals run by Somerset Storyfest.

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Raise funds for regional literacy with the 2026 SQUIGL calendar

SQUIGL Club is an awesome online drawing group for kids in regional Queensland. It was developed by author-illustrator Andy Geppert along with Somerset Storyfest and the Longreach School of Distance Education.

Andy had a brilliant idea – let’s raise funds for regional kids to visit a writers festival, and let’s sell calendars to do it! Each month’s artwork is an artistic collaboration between a kid living on a remote property and a professional illustrator. The kids each drew a bird or a flying creature, then the illustrators worked it into a schmick piece of art.

And now you can take the artwork home with you! The 2026 SQUIGL Club Art Calendar looks great on kitchen walls, fridges – even dunny doors.

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Check out the illustrators involved: Niña Nill, Sami Bayly, Peter Cheong, Matt Stanton, Mandy Foot, Natasha Carty, Terry Whidborne, Tony Flowers, Brent Wilson, Kate Isobel Scott, Andy Geppert, and me!

All proceeds support literacy in regional communities by funding transport and tickets to regional Somerset Storyfest events in Longreach, St George, and Emerald.

Here’s a little bit about my piece for the calendar. I started off with Will Thomas’ excellent drawing of a toucan …

… and ended up with a tree FULL of toucans! Can you spot Will’s initial drawing in there?

I’ll show some more process in a later post.

In the meantime, why not hit the link and order yourself a whizz-bang, feel-good 2026 calendar?

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Free capybara drawing tutorial

They’re the internet’s favourite animal! Have you ever wanted to know how to draw a capybara?

Here’s a free step-by-step drawing tutorial showing you how to draw Barry from my picture book Happy Barry Capybara.

Order ‘Happy Barry Capybara’

🌏*Signed copIes* – PAPER BIRD

🇦🇺 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS

How to create a linocut style digitally

For my picture book Bigfoot vs Yeti: A Love Story, I used a digital linocut technique for the illustrations.

Linocut is normally a printmaking technique – so how do you do it digitally?

Find out in the demo below.

Demo tech specs

I’m using a 2017 iPad pro, with a 1st gen apple pencil and the Procreate app.

The digital linocut brushes came from Patternologie and Seamless Team.

Buy Bigfoot vs Yeti: A Love Story

🌏 *Signed copies* – Paper bird

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Local Indie bookshops

Ever wondered what a fart sounds like in Turkish?

Apparently like that!

I love seeing how words and particularly sound effects get translated into other languages. My graphic novel Gastronauts has been released in Türkiye as Gastronotlar, which means we get to find out how farts (and burps) sound in Turkish!

See below for the cover and more internals.

Special Agent Dana Skunky, reporting for duty

Need another sneak peek into Secret Agent Mole book 2: The Boar Identity?

Introducing Special Agent Dana Skunky (a.k.a. our favourite Helena Hippo, undercover in the FBI).

Unfortunately, her trenchcoat comes with a super accurate skunk-like smell: enough to make a gorilla faint! Luckily Max and Bug don’t seem too affected by the unpleasant odour (perhaps they’re used to bad smells?)

See below for a teeny tiny excerpt from The Boar Identity, when Max and Bug first get a whiff of Helena’s stinky trenchcoat, leading them to give it a more appropriate nickname.

In the latest instalment of Secret Agent Mole, Star Division has discovered a magical meteorite with anti-gravity powers – and Dr Nude will stop at nothing to get his naked little hands on it, including brainwashing a Star employee!

Can Max Mole, Helena Hippo and June Bug stop Dr Nude’s evil plans? Make sure you pick up a copy of Secret Agent Mole 2: The Boar Identity to find out.

🌏 *SIGNED COPIES* – PAPER BIRD

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS

Casa Del Libro (Catalan)

Break-in news: Dr Nude is back!

Here’s a sneak peek of the latest instalment in my Secret Agent Mole series -watch out Neil Hamstrung!

Can Max Mole, Helena Hippo and June Bug stop Dr Nude’s evil plans? Make sure you pick up a copy of Secret Agent Mole 2: The Boar Identity to find out.

🌏 *SIGNED COPIES* – PAPER BIRD

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS

Casa Del Libro (Catalan)