Joshua Junebug

There I was, four years ago now, thinking to myself that it would be fun to come up with some children's stories in which all the characters were bugs. The first character that popped into my head was, Joshua Junebug. To me the name sounded fun, friendly and likeable. In fact, just knowing his name made me want to get to know him better.

At the time all I knew about junebugs was that they were a fat beetle that came out in June. And with that scant knowledge I began to write about this playful third grader and his friends. The stories are often centered around their school activities, because many lessons third graders learn they learn in school.

When it came time to creating the Joshua Junebug puppet I had yet to make a sketch of the character. All he was was a indistinct idea. As much a feeling as he was a mental image. So I sat down to my computer and searched for pictures of junebugs. I found out that they came in many shades of golds, browns, greens and even reds. And that they also had these fabulous, almost feathered, antenna. Well I drew up a couple of sketches and went to work. And in about two weeks Joshua was completed.

The entire process of the build is documented on the forum at puppetsandstuff.com in a tutorial call Joshua Junebug. The following link will take you to that tutorial.

http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php/topic,2882.0.html

In my next post I will introduce you to Professor Ichabod Inch.