Birth announcement for a friend

I painted this for a friend who just had a little girl. The announcement was written as though it came from the big brother.

Another style comparison

The watercolor version above and the gouache and ink (plus Photoshop) below.

Thinking about styles

This past weekend I went to the New England SCBWI conference in Springfield, Massachusetts. I got a lot of positive feedback on the portfolio pieces done in the ink and gouache technique and I've been trying to define just what it is that people are responding to, so I'm playing with the same image in a few different ways.

Here is my original pencil drawing.

And here is the watercolor that I did from it.

Here's the same picture done in gouache and ink. It's obviously bolder and therefore has more immediate impact.

And here it is with some of the extra smudgy black ink removed.

Finally here is a version with the ink lines drawn directly (unlike the way of working negatively that the gouache technique involves) and colored in Photoshop. I'd love to get feedback. Is it the heaviness of the black line that gives the punch or its uneven quality? Is the uneven coloring an essential element? Is it the very fact that the gouache technique is hard to control and results in almost accidental effects that gives it its energy?

Another new portfolio piece

Illustration Friday - vocal

"Granny tried singing in the choir but somehow her voice made funny creaks and croaks."
This is from a story I've written that seemed to fit this week's prompt quite well.

New portfolio piece

I've been deciding what to include and working on some new pieces for my portfolio for the New England SCBWI conference later this month. I just finished this one which I see as a companion to this.