"Introverted, unemotional, quiet and uncertain" doesn’t really make for a good screen character. However Shaun Tan’s main character humbly named "the boy" has a perfect temperament to befriend the Lost Thing. “I was keen to see everyone with sharp lines, like someone had come along with a chisel and a hammer. And very simply and with not a lot of time, made a face”
Shaun Tan made extensive expression boards for the boy; including the face that is made when someone tugs at your shirt and the face when someone is watching an ad on TV – priceless. Why does the boy have such a large forehead and baggy pants? Shaun Tan talks us through his process of drawing this quirky character from The Lost Thing.