A brief profile of Tohby
in words and pictures
Tohby enjoying a book in the early days
More early days . . .
"The Pharaoh dreamed that seven fat cows came out of the river."
— from the crayon of Tohby (when about 7 years old).Tohby Riddle makes picture books and cartoons
He loves doing these things.
His books include picture books such as
The Great Escape from City Zoo, The Singing Hat
and The Royal Guest and What’s the Big Idea?
which is a collection of cartoons originally published
in Good Weekend magazine.
Tohby lives in Sydney with his family
and occasionally entertains the idea of owning a donkey …
In order to make the best possible book he can,
Tohby often gets deeply involved in the story …
Tohby Riddle (second from left) and cast enjoy
a meal after wrapping The Great Escape from City Zoo
This self portrait was done while Tohby was illustrating
Pat the Cat and Sailor Sam – a book that starred a catA picture can be made out of just about anything.
One time, when travelling in Florence, Italy,
Tohby found the local coffee was a good "paint".
Facing Giotto's Campanile, Florence, Italy.
Pen and coffee, 10 cm x 15 cmIn New York, coffee is not such a good "paint",
but scraps of paper lying around can be used for colour in a picture.
Somewhere on the Lower East Side,
New York City
Pen, pencil and coloured paper,
12 cm x 17 cmBecause Tohby feels sure that his memory
isn't perfect he keeps notebook nearby at all times.
He doesn't want to forget any ideas that come to him
so he scribbles all kinds of things into this notebook.
A sketch from Tohby's notebook
