On the Road, Into the Page: Dave Petzold’s Journey Behind We Live In A Bus

From bumpy roads and buzzing frogs to dragonflies dancing over Porcupine Gorge, We Live In A Bus is born from Dave Petzold’s own family journey along Queensland’s Dinosaur Trail. In this heartfelt and engaging interview, Dave explores how real-life adventure shaped his storytelling, how traditional and digital art techniques fuel his creative process, and the surreal joy of hearing David Wenham bring his words to life on StoryBox Hub. Hop aboard for a behind-the-scenes look at a story filled with wonder, warmth, and a love of the great outdoors.

Your book We Live In A Bus was inspired by your own family travels through Queensland’s Dinosaur Trail. How did your personal experiences on the road shape the storytelling, tone, and details of the book?

Travelling in the outback was incredibly influential in helping the book come together. The landscapes and creatures all played a huge role in shaping the content for the book and, to be honest, if I hadn't bought a bus and gone travelling, the book wouldn’t have happened.

Most of the adventures that the family have in the book are straight from my own experiences, like flat tyres, swimming in water holes, chittering budgies flying through the scrub, and late night frog symphonies. Of all the places I’ve been, I’d have to say my favourite is Porcupine Gorge. I love the waterholes and the iridescent dragonflies, some of which you might see on one of the pages in the book.

The shapes and textures of the landscapes out in the “Wild West” really do invite you in, as do the people. There’s some quirky characters living out there in the heat and humidity and they love a good ol’ chinwag.

When I came to write the story, all of the material was already there, I just had to create the characters and weave some sort of story around them.

The illustrations in We Live In A Bus are rich with texture, movement, and warmth. Can you walk us through your process—how you bring characters to life and the blend of traditional and digital techniques you use to create your illustrations?

I use a mixture of traditional and digital techniques to create all my illustrations. I draw everything with pencil or ink or oil paint, then I scan everything and assemble and colour it all in photoshop. It’s a bit of a strange, cobbled process that’s evolved over time but I really enjoy moving back and forth between drawing and the computer.

As for the characters, I generally have a rough idea of who they are before I start and I try to add a lot of backstory to each character, which helps build the world they live in, and helps their personality develop on the page.

The family in We Live in a Bus is loosely based on my own family. The young boy is definitely me when I was that age—curious, cheeky and out for adventure, and Suzy sort of resembles my sister, but she’s older than me in the book.

You’ve mentioned that storyboarding plays a key role in your creative workflow. What do you enjoy most about the storyboarding stage, and how does it help you shape the final narrative visually?

Storyboarding is where I get to try different things and play with layout, perspective and composition. I love working fast and keeping things loose and rough—sometimes I wonder if they’re too rough, usually that’s just before I send them to my publisher. But to be honest, I wish I could bring more of that spontaneity and freedom to the final illustrations.

Your characters are wonderfully curious and full of personality. How do they evolve from your initial sketches to fully formed individuals on the page? Do you find they sometimes surprise you as they take shape?

They do surprise me. It’s a bit of a weird process, I mean, it feels weird, like they kind of create themselves in a way. It’s hard to explain. To start, I just draw them over and over until something starts to look right, maybe it’s their hair or their glasses but I never know what’s going to happen until I put pencil to paper. I usually start drawing their head and I play with expressions. Eventually I find that I like what’s taking shape on the page and then I draw the whole character in different poses.

I also try to create some sort of backstory for each character, which helps me hone in on their personality and how to express it, like what they’re wearing, holding, doing, their attitude, how they stand, etcetera. For example, the boy in the We Live in a Bus likes birds, lizards and sticks so you’ll see that there’s lots of bird drawings inside the bus and he’s always on the lookout for lizards on the road. Suzy likes collecting shells and making necklaces. There’s one hanging from the rearview mirror. Mum and Dad, on the other hand, are kind of supporting characters in the book but they have backstory, too. If you look closely you might see some of their backstory littered throughout the pages, too.

Your childhood memories—particularly time spent with your grandparents in their wonderfully eclectic Adelaide home—clearly planted the seeds of creativity and curiosity in your life. How do those early experiences continue to influence the way you create characters, stories, and illustrations today?

Yeah, those memories have stayed with me and are still very vivid. I think that experience allowed my curiosity and creativity to flourish and run wild and I try to draw on those feelings when I’m creating a book, especially when I’m trying to “get into character” and write from the perspective of a young boy or girl.

My grandfather was an amazing artist and I learnt a lot from watching him draw birds or horses and create beautiful leatherwork scenes reminiscent of the German countryside. I think that gave me the courage to be an artist and to trust myself and above all it fostered a love of nature and a curiosity about the world.

You can read more about that on my website.

We Live In A Bus is now part of StoryBox Hub, read by the incredible David Wenham. How did it feel to see your story performed in this way, and what do you hope children take away from experiencing your book through StoryBox?

It was very surreal, to be honest. I never would have dreamt that David Wenham would be reading my book on StoryBox Hub. I hope children get a sense of curiosity and wonder from reading We Live in a Bus and I hope they feel inspired to get outside and look at things and learn about the world.

We thank Dave Petzold for his time. We Live In A Bus will be available to watch on StoryBox Hub from 25 June 2025.