Sunny Bean’s first appearance was in November 2016 – before he even had a name. I had my artwork on display for the first time and I wanted to come up with a new character. The idea to “Smile More” originated ten years before the first drawing, when I was facilitating a human rights education workshop in Nepal. At the end of the day, while reading participants’ evaluations, I came across one comment that said, “The facilitator should smile more.” I took that to heart, and did my best to do just that.

The original artwork, now in the hands of a good friend, was using ink and watercolour pencils on watercolour paper.