A courageous monkey - the story of fighting for what you have lost

Many of you are probably excited to find out what the story of Migwi is about. Today we would like to introduce you to the story of our little monkey.

First of all let us introduce you to the characters -

Migwi - he is a courgeous little monkey, sometimes very clumsy, carefree with a very big heart
Migwi's family - mom, dad and little sister. The family lives in a beautiful tree, their home provides them with everything they need, leaves and a cozy place to sleep. His parents are very caring and together with his little sister they form a very strong family. Later on during his journey Migwi will meet many new friends, we will introduce you to them later on.

The surroundings -

The story begins with Migwi's family and their home, a gigantic, most beautiful, tree which is very important to Migwi and his family. The little monkey likes to play in his tree, he loves to jump from branch to branch, play with his monkey friends and munch leaves as though they were a bag of chips. Nature plays a very big role in this story and the illustrations will always convey this feeling of unique beauty created by nature and what nature means to the animals living in it.

The story - 

One day Migwi returns from playing in the surrounding forest, when he sees that his tree, his home, his place of safety has been chopped down by humans. This is where the story really begins, because despite Migwi's pain and fear of having lost what was truly dear to him, Migwi will go on a journey, searching for a new tree, a new home for his entire family, never giving up...

This journey will be full of adventures, exciting encounters with helpful forest animals, and a courageous monkey that never loses the hope of finding a new home...

So, what do you think?

Can you picture Migwi and his family happily living together? How do you imagine the scene where Migwi returns from playing in the forest to discover his home has been destroyed?

Migwi's Home Sweet Home.

Staring into the distance. Watching the sun go down.

This is a very rough idea for a bigger scene in the book. In the story an ancient tree plays a big part and it's Migwi's home and he loves it. Migwi loves his tree, where he lives with his family and to create an illustration with just him and the tree, surrounded by lots of little details would be lovely. In my head anyway haha.

So far what I will change the following in this scene: create a bigger tree with more branches and add more life in it. I really like how Migwi's color palette stand out against the greens and browns. The biggest obstacle was that it would be a big painting, but after creating this one...it wasn't that difficult to paint at all. Bigger washes for when I need to add colors for the tree (more flooooow!! hehe) and I'll use a sponge for the leaves and then for adding the details, many tiny brushes!! It will take more time, but end result should be worth it :D

I think this is the last of the 'older sketch work', old as in drawn somewhere end 2011. I'll update with new work soon and hopefully it'll changed a bit!

Stay tuned!

Family Peek!

Hello Everyone!

It's time for a...family snapshot!

Seriously. The difference between picture size large and x-large is too big! Do enlarge the image for better view. X-large ends up in the side bar and large is this. Doesn't make sense! Minor rant there hehe. Let's see...I drew and painted this a while back and I figured to show it to you before I start showing peeks of new art. Migwi has a mom, dad and baby sister. It's going to be interesting to draw the entire family of Migwi and giving them their own characteristics ^_^.

Hope you all had a great weekend and a great start of the week. This week is going to be really busy for me, so wish me luck!

Take care!!

Ciao