Piece of the Week: ‘Little boy blue’ by poodlesoup

This Piece of the Week is captioned with the line, “He would sit up there, seemingly sad, but never crying.” It’s a touching and pensive description of an oddly beautiful illustration. A boy sits alone on a mechanical flying machine, decorated lightly with bunting, hovering through the city streets. “Little boy blue” by poodlesoup  could have gone from 0 to twee in under three seconds, but instead, it’s remained lovely and  warm.

Poodlesoup has a strong interest in nomadic flying machines, imagined blimps and hand-made aircraft, and it’s exemplified in this hand-drawn illustration. I think “Little boy blue” is so inviting because it speaks to a childish sense of wonder. Poodlesoup’s illustration is a throw back to a time of creating ships out of tree houses and bows and arrows from sticks and twine.

It’s hard to tell if the boy in “Little boy blue” wants to be alone, or has just realized he is, in fact alone. Either way his loneliness doesn’t seem distressing, and I can imagine hime sitting on his blimp-thing, floating through time and space, for years to come. The warm golden sky, hazy smoke and green buildings remind me of buildings from the turn of last century, drenched in history.

This relaxing illustration works on many levels for a wide audience, and it’s lovely to stare at or float away with.  Because of its sensitive palette and attention to detail, this is our pensive and reflective Piece of the Week.