An Improbable Rodent

The story asks how a small rodent ended up on Orkney, hundreds of miles of cold sea from its nearest relatives, and why it never left. The illustrations had to carry a long read across fourteen pages and keep its humour.

I read the piece first and picked the places it moves through: the cliffs, the standing stones, Skara Brae, the boats that may have carried them there. Then I drew each place as a crowd of voles, curled, sleeping and climbing, so the animal is the landscape.

Everything is pen and ink on paper, scanned and set into the layout with space left for the pull quotes.

A series of full-bleed spreads and spot drawings that run through the whole feature.