Circus Mice Process

An initial rendering of my Circus Mice Project once I had the sketched out my characters

Hey there, welcome to my latest project, Circus Mice! I worked on this project last week and it was so much fun to get back into my creative groove. I have to admit, my sketches are a bit rough since I haven't worked on anything art-related in almost three years, but I'm excited to share my work with you nonetheless.

I created this project for my friend's daughter's 8th birthday since I had no idea what to buy her. Plus, I've been feeling more and more inspired to take my illustrations to the next level, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I knew this family appreciated handmade items, so I put all my love and creativity into the artwork.

When the little girl unwrapped the artwork, my heart was racing with nerves. But her reaction was priceless - her eyes lit up, and she was absolutely thrilled! It was the best feeling ever.

Check out the behind-the-scenes process and the final project below. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to leave a comment!

Once I had a few characters sketched out, I started creating a story of the family at a circus. The inspiration came from the little girl and her family, and also the "friendly" circus mice from the movie Coraline. My goal is to design something that's both fun and reflective of her unique personality and style. To start, I drew a few mice as a playful and whimsical element.

To complement the story, I worked out a color palette that conveyed the right feeling and emotion. To give the mice a playful touch, I drew their tails wiggly and darkened their hands and feet.

Since the little girl has two siblings, I used Procreate to manipulate the adults into smaller figures, adding new clothes to reflect the unique personalities of each child. I was happy with how the characters turned out.

Finally, with the characters complete, I was able to create a quick background and added some hand-lettering for the final touches (which admittedly I need to work on).

I was so excited to have this piece printed since it's the first digital work I've had printed. The end result turned out so well, and I'm thrilled to say that the family loved the piece so much that they decided to have it framed.

Overall, I had a great time developing and creating this piece, and it allowed me to learn and improve my skills.