side quest for a little hen

This was intended to be my Easter drawing, but as y'all know I struggled with some physical pains this month so it was finished much later... still, I think it stands fine on its own without the holiday.

Lately I've been trying to inch more towards telling small narratives with my art. Anise is out there helping a little momma with something 🐔📜 the animal quests are always a top fave! I originally imagined her delivering chicken feed, and stopping to admire the sight of a fluffy hen atop her eggs, but it really could be anything! This feathered friend could be saying all kinds of interesting things if someone casted Speak with Animals.

I accidentally went a little too far rendering the chicken to the point where she looks way more detailed than everything else lol. I opted to keep it instead of adding that much rendering everywhere, mostly due to the humor factor, partially because it would be a shame to erase all of that work.

Fun fact: I'm also a sucker for heirloom eggs, so they are speckled blue. I wanted to draw a heritage hen, but there's a lot of breeds to choose from and I thought adding the fancy feathers and patterns may make the image way too busy in one spot. Did you know that most of our eggs only come from two breeds of chickens thanks to standardized agriculture, and heirloom breeds are disappearing? Heirloom breeds and eggs are a very interesting read, I would recommend it!

With the background, at first it was just the dark green grass patch. As time went on, I thought maybe I could go for more of a postcard look, perhaps something I could print in the future and have room to write on. So the background expanded, but I still left white borders all around. I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy with this decision, and think I could have just colored up to the edges instead. But I guess it does fulfill my idea of what a postcard may look like for a print or future postcard illustration.

I've also been experimenting a lot with how I want to render clouds. Do you guys like the rough, painterly look of these clouds? Or something more soft and bubbly like in QUEST CLEAR? I like both a lot, and one style isn't particularly easier to do than the other, aha. ☁

Thanks for reading!