Three Halloween Kittens!

Our latest project in Children's Book Illustration III was to pick a short story provided and illustrate a full page bleed and it's opposite text page with a spot illustration. I chose the story of the Three Little Kittens, (you know, they lost their mittens, and they began to cry...).

My first question was this: why were the kittens wearing mittens?
Because it is Halloween, of course, and the mittens are part of their costumes! And I went with the happy scene after they found their mittens and put them back on. :)

Just as we did with the last project, we did three double spread layouts, character sketches, and a final image. I'm not fully finished painting the piece, and I also will touch it up with colored pencil, but I'll share what I've got so far!

And then I did an ink under painting, and then watercolor painting...

checked my values via desaturation...

...and then I got nervous about covering the whole thing in my dark blue for the night, 

so I tried it out on Photoshop first...

And thank goodness for Photoshop! I went back and worked in the darks, and now I'm finishing up on the watercolors before I begin any colored pencil. 

Whew! I think it's time for bed now! I'll post ya laters, gators!

~Melanie