Unusual Pet Vignette

This month in the Let’s Make Picture Books group, we were focusing on vignettes. Unusual Pets vignettes, to be precise.

Denise and Steph put together so much valuable information to help us with the task.

Such a fun theme! Here is my final submission to the group.

My unusual pets are Golden Lion Tamarins. They just love to help their human with household chores. The Tam drying the dishes is quite well behaved and helpful. He is immensely proud of himself.

The Tam on the shelf is trying her best but has a harder time keeping things under control. Her tail has accidentally tipped over the soap bottle…which is starting to make a mess. Do you think the soup pot will fall from the shelf?

The little girl loves them both very much.

Here are a few of my earlier sketches, color roughs and iterations. With the help of the group, I was able to finish another piece for my portfolio. Hooray!

early sketch - from reference along with a thumbnail.

an early color rough done with the blob brush quickly in Adobe Illustrator. Most everyone in the group preferred the left, warmer colors - I was torn but decided to trust the majority.

I nailed down this version in Photoshop - and sent it off for feedback from the group

after revising almost completely, I submitted again to the group. They all preferred the old one! But my husband preferred the new one, as did I. Ugh!! what to do???

I once again trusted the judgement of the group and made only a few slight changes to the “old one” by adding in a hint of mess and looming chaos from our less-controlled Tam on the shelf. Overall, I am very happy with it and got so much out of the process.

I consider this my first completed piece done in Photoshop. I think I may keep working this way although I miss the ease and editability of Illustrator. It’s hard to beat the handmade feel of Photoshop!