``That's what I was trying to tell you!''

So besides using the pencil tool for the real outlines, I also did a layer of color using the same tool. I'm pretty happy with the results. It still looks loose and alive in a way that the inked lines hadn't. And the color being a bit imperfect and smearing past lines doesn't distract from the look. I'd like to get a little better at this, like, I'd like the grain of the raccoon's color to better match the curve of its belly. But it's getting more right.

Also, I went back and paid attention to what the Playskool Tree I was copying actually looked like. (See http://www.thisoldtoy.com/playskool.....tems.html#113a ) The small bit is making clear that the hole in the center goes all the way through. (And it's not, like, a solid tunnel; it's two holes in the shell.) Second, the base is not an ellipsoid; the base is a figure-eight. So while the tree is pretty far from a humanoid figure, someone who's really skilled could figure a way to give them the expressiveness of arms or maybe legs.

And I did my best to make these toys distort their shapes so they look like they're doing things, which is why it looks like somebody just found out they were now a tree, with the only face coming from creatively emphasizing or deemphasizing the trace of leaf lines on the top. The raccoon's also pretty well distorted out of the toy's original shape and it turns out doing that is okay.