friendship at first sight?

This certainly isn't friendship at first sight, but it is my latest illo. It's been in the making for quite some time (because I thought of other things I wanted to illustrate). This story is one I wrote when I first began writing in earnest. I have currently revised the story and am now working toward completing three finished illustrations (this time digitally). Who knows where it'll take me, but I'm learning a lot in the meantime!

Petting zoo

Here's my (momentarily) finished product of the illo below. I've been busy with a lot of different things and that, coupled with still learning a lot about digital painting have made it take longer to get things done as quickly as I want to. But I learn something new every time I work with Painter. Some day I might perfect this particular illustration, but at the moment I'm ready to try something else.

I must admit that I get discouraged now and then, thinking that I'll never get to do what I hope to with my illustrating. I know I'm not the best there is out there, but I still feel that I have a good, quality product that people would enjoy. And then, even when I do get discouraged, I don't think I could stop making art. I look at the world through artist eyes . . . I constantly analyze how I would create certain effects I see in real life, always see scenes that I think would be fun to illustrate. On that note, my next project will be of my son walking across a bridge. Our zoo has a really cool play area that gave me the idea.