As far as lighting you can try outside during a bright day -in the shade, or use diffusers on your lights.

I like the collage stuff you've been doing lately. It's got your cute style with some added interest in the veiled text of the newspapers. The only thing I would change (which doesn't really matter since it's in a finished state) would have been to add a bit of a curve or diagonal to Rascal's tail and to work the boy's anatomy a bit more. It's a kid's book obviously so realism isn't necessary, just a thought.

You have your portfolio almost finished?

Thanks for the advice! I'll try that out.

I'm glad you like it. I think it's helping me stay loose. I don't want to be so ... strict about the anatomy and perspective and all that because I think it makes it kind of static. I don't know, I might be too nervous about the project; in earlier attempts when I tried to make it look more realistic, it went dead. I do agree with you about the tail. I'll see what I can do to change it later, after I've done a few more in this style. And I might fix up the anatomy too or just change the values a bit. We'll see. (By the way, the child is supposed to be a girl, not a boy. I'm hoping it'll be more clear in other pictures, ha.)

My portfolio isn't quite half-way finished. I want to put a few more of these types of illustrations in and a few polished Lorisnail paintings too. I was just talking about getting this first Rascal illustration done. I've had the storyboard drawn out for months, nearly a year, and I spent quite a while fumbling around with different ways to illustrate it until I hit on this collage thing.

--
<sub>"O Son of Man! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life."
- Baha'u'llah

For information on the Baha'i Faith [link]</sub>

Oooh, so I was thinking about the tail -and maybe if you have rascal going around the couch it might help lead the viewer back into the image so you have a circular design happening. The girl looks down and to the left and then rascal leads back to the right.
I truly hope you don't change too much of the anatomy, I her right hand to pieces. I think perhaps it's her left hand and her eyes that would need any attention.
I promise I'll be quiet now...

Oh, that is a good idea. I'll see if I can work that into my other compositions -- I think it'd be too difficult at this point to change his tail so drastically. But I did add a little curve to it and I think it looks better. I also changed the hand a little and the eyes a tiny bit... I don't know if anyone else can tell, heh. I'll see if I can take a good photo of it tomorrow so you can see it yourself.

Thanks so much for thinking about it so much and giving me the feedback! It's quite helpful! And sometimes I get lonely around here...

--
<sub>"O Son of Man! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life."
- Baha'u'llah

For information on the Baha'i Faith [link]</sub>

Wow, you're quick! It looks good too, nice job!

Thank you! I took another photo just now and it turned out better, if you'd like to look again?

--
<sub>"O Son of Man! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life."
- Baha'u'llah

For information on the Baha'i Faith [link]</sub>

Woah, Khanum....
I don't know what you did but...
yeah, I'm thinkin it's still lookin great silly.