"Sparrow in the Footprint Pool" Heavyweight Unisex Crewneck T-shirt

Ochre and navy do nearly all the work here: sandy cream for the cracked earth, deep navy for the water held inside it, and a mid blue where the sky shows on the surface. The whole drawing is one irregular shape, a three-toed footprint seen from above, with a long pointed toe at the top and two shorter ones splayed left and right.

Rain has filled the hollow. A sparrow with a chestnut cap and streaked brown and black wings stands on the left ridge, yellow feet gripping the edge, and dips its beak into the pool.

Thin rings spread from the point where the beak meets the water, and the bird’s dark reflection lies directly beneath it, slightly broken by the ripple. Pale cloud shapes drift across the lower part of the pool, small ochre pebbles crowd the waterline at bottom left, and the three toe hollows stay almost solid navy, as if the water there were too deep to show any sky. The rim is stippled with dense navy dots and split by fine crack lines, which gives the mud a dry, baked look against the wet interior.

On a heavyweight crewneck tee the footprint reads first as a rough stone shape and only then as the track of something enormous, with a very small bird drinking from it. It suits birdwatchers, fossil hunters and anyone who likes a quiet joke about scale.