Faces 11 and 12

These two faces are ideas I have for a children's book I am writing, I have one chapter to go and I need to get cracking on the illustrations. The drawings in it will be black and white, but I need a colour one for the cover. I like to work out the main characters in colour as it gives me a good foundation for the black and white sketches. I can't make up my mind whether to have the main character, Columbia, as the first one or the second one.

The story is for 8 to 11 year olds and is a mystery fantasy. It is set on an magical island. The characters are slightly old worldy, which I think I captured in the first one. However my gut says the second picture will appeal to young girls? And as you guessed it there is a genie in the story. Unfortunately he has lost his memory because he was asleep for so long....

For both I have used a variety of media, acrylics, gouache and coloured pencils, with a tiny bit of tweaking in Photoshop for the backgrounds.

I want to have a painting day tomorrow so will see you all Thursday.