I have always wanted to do one of these monthly contests but for some reason or another never do. This time I realized I had a piece already started...and then promptly went away on a long trip to the US without my Cintiq.
Anyway, here we are on the last day I have to work, with a piece more or less assembled, but it still needs a good bit of massaging. There was no way I could submit each stage for critique because I couldn't work on it again until a couple of days ago. At this point I can move around and resize the characters, adjust colors and values, etc., but it will be hard to completely redraw anything because each element is drawn by hand and then scanned. Most of the colors are textures that I have scanned in and used as collage.
Anyway, given my limited capabilities for change at this point, I am quite open to critiques. I just want to use the monthly contest as an impetus to finish something.
The idea for the image is taken from The Musicians of Bremen. I was storyboarding this in July when I realized there is a humorous flaw in the animal anthropomorphosis. In my illustration, it's the end of the story and the dog is realizing it too. Extra points if you can guess what it is, because that would mean I was able to convey my realization clearly enough for someone to guess it!