I am choosing to challenge myself and do a full mock spread on this topic. I want to enter into the children's book world and I am starting pull together a portfolio. So as far as this project goes I want to share my process and get some feed back as I go, rather than at the end when it is too hard to change. This is a really rough compilation of my sketchbook sketches pulled into photoshop so that I can figure out the composition. What do you think? Is it too busy? are there any major red flags that you see? Thank you in advance.
Great to hear you are challenging yourself.
This is in pretty rough stage I would say, so my advice would be to make sure you dont over do it with confusing details, figure out focus points and readability. When you are working on a such complex illustration it is easy to get lost in it I think. But the results are worth it when you get it right.
Other then that it looks fun to me and best luck with it :).
@jonas-zavacky you are right, I got ahead of myself. I am going to go back to simple shapes to fully get the foundation in. Thanks!
@Mandy-Forte The characters are varied and darling! Great job! For perspective you might consider that people in the foreground should look slightly larger than characters in the background with a comparable build, so maybe blow those front ones up a bit? I can't wait to see it come together!
The figures are well-drawn and I like the variety of activity (I find "Busytown" scenes fun), but I would vary the perspective to make the figures different sizes. Also, of course, once you put in your darks/lights/colors certain emphases will emerge.
I look forward to seeing this piece progress!
I did a mock up of my values before I read the rest of the comments. I like the values but I have moved some of the things around. I just wanted to show my progress so that I don't give up. Thanks
so this is my final pencil sketch.
I can't seem to upload/comment on a post. Meaning I can't submit my entry for fall. I am posting this to see if it works here.
@mandy-forte how large is your file? Make sure the largest width is 1500px and try bringing the dpi down to 72dpi.
So I had some weird mix up with my membership and that is why I couldn't post but it is fixed now. I am a little bummed I couldn't turn this in on time but I did finish it and want it to post it somewhere. 
Great to hear you are challenging yourself.
This is in pretty rough stage I would say, so my advice would be to make sure you dont over do it with confusing details, figure out focus points and readability. When you are working on a such complex illustration it is easy to get lost in it I think. But the results are worth it when you get it right.
Other then that it looks fun to me and best luck with it :).
