“The animal characters in my work are often created while being a professional daydreamer and watching the world go by.” - Rory Dobner
Dobner’s world is full of smoking fish, hat-wearing flamingos, and music-listening octopuses — all dreamt up from a mix of animal mischief and human quirks. They bring a certain cheekiness that makes you smile — which is exactly why we love his work.
Q1. Nigel the Owl—stripe socks, news under one arm, pigeon on his head holding a takeaway coffee. It’s pure genius and chaos. What’s the story behind him, and how did this character come to life?
Nigel the owl first came to life in my book The Ink House, walking across a fireplace lintel, like he’s on his way to work looking very serious indeed with a collection of pocket watches all on the wall showing all the different times of cities around the world. Sock suspenders are a nod to my favourite show, Monty Python's Ministry of funny walks.
Then I was drawing him again and thinking what else could happen on his way to work and a pigeon walks onto my tube train and I started to think about how animals get around the city and I thought it would be funny and make Nigel even more grumpy knowing that there’s a pigeon perched on his hat, taking a cheeky free ride with a cappuccino. For me it’s a typical morning scene in London really. 
Q2. Your work is full of mischievous characters and humour—are they drawn from people you know, or are these creatures the inhabitants of your own peculiar imagination?
The animal characters in my work are often created while being a professional daydreamer and watching the world go by and letting those characters come to life, wondering what they could be up to when we humans are not looking at them. Wearing hats, playing a guitar or roller skating! I think all animals have their own personalities and are all individuals and I think their expressions and character can be best described by dressing them up and letting them do as they like.
This is also blended with noticing the funny human characteristics of people around me I see, maybe the way some sunglasses are perched on the end of their nose or the way they carry a bag or the scarf flowing in the wind as they are rushing down the street. These are all small elements that I noticed and when I’m developing a character, I suddenly think they could fit perfectly together.
For example, my smoking fish drawing came about whilst I was walking past the same office building each day, noticing a man outside of his office looking fed up smoking a cigarette. So I thought he must be very bored with what he’s doing for he’s always outside smoking cigarettes, then I imagined him having a life equal to a goldfish in a bowl, swimming round and round in circles all day utterly bored. This idea is then mixed with a non-smoking area that some smokers ignore and underwater is a big no smoking area, but this fish doesn’t care and he’ll smoke anyway. Also growing up next to the sea means I love eating fresh smoked fish.
Pop a few things in your mind, blend them up and out comes an idea like that.
Q3. You’ve illustrated everything from fine china to candles, and now your work sits on Soroka’s shelves. What draws you to certain objects—and how do you know when something’s ‘worthy’ of your ink?
All the objects that I have in my collection all began life from the things I love to collect myself at home. I had vintage plates hung on the walI, various candles in each room, tea sets and my favourite mugs! Some of these items seem to be quite old-fashioned and traditional and I was worried that in the future we may not still be using them so I thought if I could try to breathe new life into them, more people would use them. ‘Long live afternoon tea (and biscuits)’. All these objects then became surfaces that I could experiment drawing my ideas on too. I drew ants crawling across a tea set , a parrot perched on a cup and flying pocket watches on mugs. I kept drawing all over everything in my house until I started giving them away as presents. Then selling those original items, then that turned into making my own items and printing the drawings. And I am so happy my collections are still British made, hand printed and hand painted with real gold. Or ‘magical sparkle paint’ I call it.
Q4. There’s a wonderfully British sense of sarcasm in your work. Do you see humour as part of your storytelling—almost like a visual punchline?
I think my work is very British simply because I am very British. From kings and queens to punk rock and cream teas, it’s all around us and just gets absorbed into your psyche.
I think life is full of curiosity, fun and mystery so developing miniature stories in a small capsule as a single drawing is a great way for me to communicate ideas as a visual diary. I believe that is what Art’s great ability is, to be universally understood going beyond language. You might speak different languages but you can still find the same thing funny.
Q5. Soroka is known for its playful, offbeat spirit—and your pieces fit in almost too perfectly. What do you think connects your world to Soroka’s, and why do you think it works so well together?
Soroka’s world is guaranteed to trigger your imagination, with a surprise on each shelf and playful humour waiting to be discovered. You have managed to successfully bring together so many artists and designers of various styles that seem to all live happily together… A great way to create an individual style using the many of the inspiring items one can find there. And even though my own collection is in a classic black and white (red heart special exception) it looks fab with any colour or pattern one may choose.
Rory Dobner’s ceramics are made in England using fine bone china. Each piece is hand-decorated with his illustrations, finished with 22-carat gold, and features designs ranging from zodiac signs to the alphabet.
