Cooper.

When Cooper was little, his grandmother would take him up to the bush behind the house and tell him the name of every tree: this one's tallowwood, this one grey gum, this one swamp mahogany. She wasn't teaching him botany; she was teaching him to pay attention and to care for things that have names. That's why, as an adult, he knows his valley by heart. He's a calm, observant koala, the kind who notices the small things. Good company to wear on your chest.

I created this portrait facing forward with a flat background: on a kid's T-shirt it looks great and holds up to washing and playing. A fun fact about Cooper: he's a koala, and koalas spend almost the whole day asleep. In his story, he gets up early for the radio and then takes the longest nap in town, which for a koala is pure biology. If your little one loves koalas, there's more about this one in his story, and I've got an entire family of characters in the series.