Highlights: The Water Chase

I have some illustrations in this month's issue of Highlights magazine! They asked me to create two illustrations for a story called "The Water Chase." It's about the Armenian holiday Vartavar, a day when you are allowed to throw water on anyone who is out in public.

These are the two roughs that I sent them:

They liked the first rough, but thought that the second one needed more work. They wanted the boy to have a more masculine haircut and be holding a water bottle. The girls needed to be wearing backpacks and also holding water bottles, and they wanted to see the alleyway setting around them. Here's the revised rough.

From there I was approved to go to the finish:

Here's how it looks laid out in the magazine:

I'm particularly happy with the way these two girls turned out. I'd like to use them on a promotional postcard.