The inspiration for my latest poem? Cute, tiny poo.
All sorts of unexpected situations can inspire a story or an illustration. My illustrated poem, “Mouse Droppings” for example, was inspired by some erm, gifts left for us by the critters in our woodland cabin. Read all about my process below!

Detail from my illustrated poem, Mouse Droppings.
I used to love mice…
PARENTHOOD turned me against mice
Character Design

Some studies of mice, mostly drawn from images I scrounged up on the Google oracle.
Ok, back to the drawing board. For this round of character designs I really focused on the things I love about mice visually. They have fat, round upper arms that end in intolerably cute pink hands with elegant claws. They also have round, plump bottoms and expressive tails. Long, paddle-like pink feet stick out goofily from their furry haunches. Finally, I LOVE their shiny black eyes and twitchy ears.
This time, by leading with the features I love, I got somewhere.

My little buddy, Princess Honey, flew through with some encouragements. I found the mice quite difficult to draw!

Whew, after drawing mice for what felt like hours I finally got to some designs that felt right.

Some variations of how the mice might look, clothed and shod.
Composition & Value
I sadly cannot find my various composition sketches BECAUSE I DELETED THEM.

Value study laid on top of my line drawing. I messed around for a while with how to make the foreground distinct from the background.
At this stage of laying in values I was focused on two things:
Making sure the foreground (inside the cab) was clearly apart from and in front of the background (the view outside the window).
Establishing my focal point on the mouse with the umbrella. You’ll see soon how I added color to make that really gel together.
Establish a pleasing composition by drawing the eye in to a focal point then pulling the eye AROUND the illustration.
Color
I knew my mice would be naturally occurring mouse colors so I pulled a bunch of browns and beiges out of the photo.

“Mouse Droppings” color palette
Final Art





Mouse Droppings is done! I hope you enjoyed reading about this illustrated poem as much as I enjoyed making it.
Looking for fun things to do with your kids on those long rainy days?

Final art for my illustrated poem, “Mouse Droppings”.

Final art for my illustrated poem, “Mouse Droppings”.