Birdie.

Birdie is a small child, and like all children he has a game he takes more seriously than anything else. His is playing assistant at the station: the old conductor, once the cold gets the better of his hands, lends him the departure bell and lets him call out the stops, and for Birdie that's the most important thing in the world. He spends his days bringing the people on the platform together and counting them over and over, so no one's left stray. None of that shows in the portrait, of course; it's what he plays at. But it explains his always-watchful face.

A lovely detail about emperor penguins: chicks spend weeks waiting for their parents to come back from the sea with food, still and huddled together against the cold. Waiting is what they do, from very early on. It shows in Birdie's story: he's the kind who waits without complaint for whatever's due to arrive. I created this portrait facing forward with a plain background, which on a kid's t-shirt reads from a distance and holds up to washing and the playground. If your little one loves penguins, there's more of Birdie in his biography, and a whole family of characters in the series.