@BichonBistro CDT, so I got the email at 2:55 which wouldn't make sense since the critique was at 2 MDT, 3 CDT.

@BichonBistro my reminder came 5 minutes before they went live and it said "we will start in about an hour" - wondering if there was some kind of email server issue

I refined the sketch a little and threw some rough color in, I think this is getting close to ready for me to take it to final, still have a bit of working out to do with the judges.

@lmrush aww thanks I feel like ive come a long way this year, its completely different from my top 9 last year!

@lmrush you just embraced the theme a bit more than everyone else

@xin-li I think maybe it's just the position of the boy's eyebrows but to me he comes off as apprehensive or maybe a bit worried, like a nervous smile. I really like the composition and rendering. The little mice are adorable. I think that maybe it would communicate "warm" better if the overall color of the piece were a bit warmer, the green in the upper right reads as warm to me but at the bottom of the page it starts to get cooler, the yellow is on the cooler side for a yellow and the other flowers are a cool purple, maybe you could just play with adjustment curves a bit or add in some small pink or red flowers to warm it up a hair. I think the combo of them wearing sweaters, the way it looks like the foliage is blowing in the wind, and the cooler green tones make me think of it more of it as a cool or crisp rather than warm - it's really close though.

@LauraA I wanted to imply other dogs in the ring, as for the actual shape and placement of the puppy butt I drew, this sketch is still pretty rough and I hadn’t worked out the actual anatomy of a Boston terrier yet (its more of a placeholder) I do like the idea to move it down so you just see a bit of the tail though.

@eriberart hey thanks, I like that idea!

@Nathalie-Kranich I think the stigma around self-published books is for fully-illustrated picture books, not so much for cover illustration and design. The time and effort you put into a cover design is much less than you would put into illustrating an entire 32 pg book so the stakes are a lot lower if the book doesn’t succeed (or maybe even get finished). I say go for it as long as the person has a budget you are comfortable with and make sure to write clear parameters about feedback and revisions into the contract so there’s less of a chance the client will be difficult.