Time to hibernate!

Here is my final for this month's theme: Hibernate. So excited to add another piece to my portfolio with the help of Let’s Make Picture Books. Let's Make Picture Books

This prairie dog family is cozying up in their little home for the winter. It's decked out with all the essentials...tea, blankets, wood burning stove, stocked pantry (not shown), and books! Mama is admiring the snowflakes from the kitchen window. Papa has turned in for the night (typical!) and pup is about to fall asleep reading in the comfy chair. I'm ready to join them - it's getting cold here!!

Here is the original sketch that I worked from. I usually like the sketch soooo much better but this time…I think I’ve managed to retain some of that quirkiness that the sketch has. I ended up doing the line work in Photoshop, then copying into Illustrator to live trace. Then I used the pen tool to block in color behind the line work. Lastly I opened the Ai file in PS and added shadows and highlights on a new layer. Then I copied those individual shadows back into Ai on the respective layers. It sounds so tedious when I write it out.

I almost left off the shadows and textures…see below. I think it is better with them. I still can’t bring myself to go fully into PS. I just love that Ai versatility.