Story Illustration Work-In-Progress

I haven't been around as much lately and the reason for that is of course a project I started working on! I am not even entirely sure how the end project will be. I might assemble it as a book, or I was also considering a slideshow video with narration. We will have to wait and see which direction I take it.

I have been simultaneously creating the story and the background artwork. I have the characters vaguely developed in my head but I haven't started the concept art on them yet.
At this point I just wanted to pop in and say hi, I'm still around, I'm just really busy developing this!

I decided to go with a paper craft style. I love the whimsical quality that it is creating. The process of this is pretty simple. I painted entire pages with watercolor textures, and scanned them. I also scanned a variety of papers to get other textures as well.

I drew very simple pencil sketches that I used as a template in Photoshop. I added the papers on top and masked them out. I deleted the pencil sketches leaving just the layers to represent a cut out paper look.
It can be tedious, but I also love the the simplicity of the images.

I think when it comes to the characters though I might add more details so that they appear more important in the hierarchy of the image. I saved all of these backgrounds as PSD files so that I can add the characters in between layers if I want to. It gives me much more flexibility when I go back. For example I was able to turn the winter woods into spring woods, just by adjusting the colors and adding some leaves between layers.

I literally have been having a hard time falling asleep at night because this is taking over my brain. I am trying to get as much done as possible while I am inspired. I do not want it to become one of those projects I abandon.

Hopefully by posting my progress here it helps keep me accountable and I can see this project through to completion!!