"smol foxxo having to hand back all the cookies they stole and looking grumpy about it"

Finally returning to the draw prompts to finish up those pics! :U

In my first draft of this art, I focused mostly on capturing the basic idea of a pouty fox kit and a hoard of stolen cookies. There wasn't a lot of context in the scribble. For example, WHY is she grumpily returning the cookies? Are they spoiled? Is she bored and wants to steal them again? <w<

The concept of having to return stolen cookies is rather abstract, indeed -- making it a great art study. Revisiting the piece, this time I tried to tell the story with more depth and intent!

I made the environment more like a den or cave than a castle dungeon. The smol foxxo didn't necessarily dig this herself, (actually she probably stole the cave too...) but it's a handy place to store a lifetime supply of cookies. An earthen den feels more likely to be inhabited by a cookie-thieving fox.

By making the foxxo smol and the den vast, it helps sell the idea of an excessive number of cookies. The cave tunneling into the background helps add some wonder and mystery. How many rooms of cookies ARE there? The cookies, boxes and cart tracks get smaller as they fade into the distance. So do the lines used to draw them.

Compositionally, the cookie piles generally slope down, pointing at the smol foxxo. The piles themselves are massive, so the full weight of the smol foxxo's crimes is bearing down on her. I used the negative space of the ground around her as a rest area to help frame her as important, and to trap her in her circumstance. The basket of cookies is a particularly dense pattern, helping attract your eye. The somewhat regular patterning of the cookie piles mixed with cookie boxes at odd angles adds visual interest while keeping the eye moving. I'm intending that your eye should move between the deep part of the cave, the sign board, and grumpy smol foxxo in a little triangle.

To add more depth, I included cues that show a passage of time. The smol foxxo is loading a mine cart at present, while a full cart is shown further up the tracks, implying she already loaded that one in the past. The full cart is spilling cookies, adding a sense of motion. The signboard and quantity of cookies implies the smol foxxo will still be busy loading cookies far in the future. The todo list says something about Vixel's plans for the even more distant future... <.<

Other storytelling tidbits include the boxes of cookies, nibbled and munched cookies, and the train signal pointing toward the exit to help define where the mine carts are going. The sign posts are pointed like spears to imply the Official Decree will be enforced, and the sign is bigger than the smol foxxo, implying it's stronger. But don't underestimate her - she stole ALL these cookies once, surely she can steal them again! >:E

Here's also a version with more cookies, some brights and darks, and a cavey blue color filter. The lighting got a little muddy, but it still adds some atmosphere. I'd like to clean it up later so it's not so splotchy, but first I want to wrap up the other draw prompt pieces!