Comfy Dog

One of my goals during winter break was to draw some black and white spot illustrations to submit to the SCBWI bulletin. They pay a whopping $25 per drawing, but mostly I just want to see my work in print. I receive the bulletin every month and read it cover-to-cover. The illustrations are, pretty strictly, the following subjects:

1. Children
2. Animals
3. Books

So this is what I came up with:

Boom. Not only did I draw a dog, I drew a golden retriever, who is pretty much the Mister Rogers of pets. I'll take that $25 now, thanks.

This is just the pencil sketch, of course. But I'm unsure how far to take this. I felt like doing some nice, clean digital linework.

Should I stop there, self? I dunno, self. Let's add some values!

I can do more!

So, my normal style would be to totally render this thing and add a few textures on top. But, I mean, come on, it's $25. Then again, I'd like to submit art that is representative of my usual style. On the other hand, maybe I could develop this as a second style - something simple and quick for editorials, textbooks, greeting cards and so forth. It's kind of a nice break from the rendering, honestly.

Decisions!