Gift book illustrations

A few months ago I was over the moon to be offered the chance to do some illustrations for a story written for a very lucky little girl by her grandmother as a present.
The story centres around the lady's grand daughter, her pet French bulldog Zoe and two squirrels which live in the oak trees in their garden. I've been commissioned to do 8 illustrations and i'm now around 1/2 way through.

As you will notice these illustrations are not in my usual style. The lady who has written the book was looking for a classical, painterly look. So i've been using traditional mediums, namely pencil and paint - with barely any digital input at all! We agreed that the images would be quite basic and sketchy, to cut down on time & therefore costs, so i've had to restrain myself in spending ages perfecting every minute detail.
I forgot how much i enjoyed painting and i think its something that i'm going to start introduce more into my work in future.
Well i thought i would share these with you -

Right back to the painting board ;-)