Pumpkin Apartments

This one grew out of my imagination during a slow day working at the Himalayan Mountain Shop in downtown Fayetteville.  I think living inside of a pumpkin would be neat, and I especially like the idea of small animals and insects making their homes in gourds and trees.  Drawing pumpkins is really fun, too, so the central idea of a pumpkin serving as a forest apartment building was appealing.  The hardest part was doing the black ink around each animal in its hole, without bleeding into other parts of the drawing.  I don’t care for the way the chipmunk turned out – I had wanted something cartoony, but could’ve done better.  Some people say this is their most favorite greeting card from Ripples, while others dislike “the squirrel’s bottom” hanging out of the hole.  I think it’s rather cute, but I’m a squirrel person.  Eventually I’d love to recreate a more detailed, realistic version of this and see where the idea takes me.  Several people suggested that I write and illustrate a story about these apartment-dwellers.  Here’s a sketch of Pumpkin Apartments before various layers of color were added.