ABOUT

The Right Way Upside Down is a warm, humorous picture book for children aged 3–5 about Archie, a little boy who has a habit of seeing the world from a very different angle — usually with his feet in the air and his head somewhere near the floor.

As Archie moves through an ordinary day of swings, biscuits, friendships, mistakes and second chances, his unusual way of looking at things begins to reflect something deeper. His dad explains that following Jesus can sometimes appear “backwards” to the world: giving instead of grabbing, forgiving instead of staying angry, helping instead of putting yourself first, and choosing love even when everyone else seems to be going the other way.

The illustrations use a loose watercolour-and-ink storybook style, with warm handmade textures, expressive characters, visible paper grain and playful visual storytelling. Archie’s upside-down antics provide the comedy, while recurring details and increasingly generous acts allow the central message to emerge naturally rather than feeling instructional.

The project combines my original storytelling and illustration work with AI-assisted enhancement to improve character consistency, composition and finish while retaining the imperfect, hand-painted character of the artwork.

At its heart, The Right Way Upside Down is a story about discovering that sometimes what looks completely upside down might actually be the right way up.