Final Outcome

My final outcome, I worked really hard on the background to get richer colours and a better texture,

I also worked on the characters some more, giving them a slightly larger than real life appeal, just so they

aren't too small on the cover like last time.

I've taken the advise to use masking fluid, it creates a nice texture and flows well,
my main criticism however is I've not added the willow leaves, I thought it would be too jumbled,
before submitting the artwork I might try to add them to see how that variation would fare, I've tried to use a limited colours pallette minus the colours of the animals, and I've worked on the text more making it clearer, I am pleased with my outcome.

What it will look like once cropped, I measured out the exact measurements before even starting the image, and made a digital version measuring it out but for some reason the image still look a bit odd! I did want to create a larger border on the top and bottom, but would've liked a slightly larger border on the edges so the blue doesn't look almost clipped, that will be something I will look at before submitting my work.