Happy Thanksgiving, from Ewe and Aye, and me

It's Thanksgiving week. Did you know that there's a parade on Thursday? At this parade, they have HUGE balloons of characters from books, TV, and movies, as well as some old favorites, like pumpkins and elves!

It's always been my secret wish to have a character of mine as a balloon in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Not so secret now that I've shared it on my blog, but still a big wish!

My first picture book came out last December, EWE AND AYE, written by Candace Ryan, and illustrated by Stephanie Ruble. *

Since nobody asked me to create balloons for the official Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I decided to draw Ewe and Aye balloons for my own Thanksgiving Day Parade. BTW, Ewe and Aye would be great as balloons because Ewe and Aye want to fly!

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is city, so it seemed like a good way to incorporate the city theme for this week too.

I love process posts from other artists, so I decided to post several images of the art at different stages. Here's the final image of Ewe and Aye soaring high in the parade:

I'm glad that I did finished color, but I liked the black and white line art, and almost stopped at this point:

The first part of the picture I added color to was the balloons. Almost stopped at that point too. There's something really fun about Ewe and Aye floating in color with everything else black and white:

I also thought about using a black and white and grey version of the image (gives it a certain old time photo appeal):

So hard to choose a favorite! But if I had to, it would probably be the one with Ewe and Aye in color and everything else in black and white. Which one is your favorite?

Did you notice that there are little Ewes and little Ayes pulling their balloons? It might be too small to see above. Here's a close up:

The image seems large, but the whole thing is about 5.5 x 7.25. Some of the animals got really, really tiny.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

*Info about EWE AND AYE, written by Candace Ryan, illustrated by Stephanie Ruble: EWE was a sheep with a feel for wheels. AYE was a lemur with a thing for wings. BUT it wasn’t until Ewe and Aye found one another that things really got off the ground.

Whimsical word play and heartfelt humor work hand-in-hand in this irresistibly vibrant celebration of the unlimited possibilities of togetherness.

Want to know more about EWE AND AYE? Click here.

Update: EWE AND AYE is now available as an ebook! Click here.