Cricket Media: February 2024 Issue

Story by: Megan Pomper

AD: Suzanne Beck

In this silly story, Melinda really wants to be a detective like her hero from her favorite book series, Debbie Skye: Private Eye. When Mom asks who ate all the chocolates, Melinda jumps on the case. She interrogates her mom, brother, dad, and even the family dog. Then she realizes that she has chocolate on her face and she was the guilty party all along. She is happy to have solved the case. 

I began this project by creating a character sheet to reference. I kept a similar color palette throughout the characters to tie them together. Melinda has a star on her shirt which is reflected in the Debbie Skye book cover, this is a subtle hint that Melinda is losing herself in the story. 

After getting a sense of the characters, I moved on to the sketches. The trick for this project was that the reader is trying to solve the project along with Melinda so they can't know that she's the culprit yet. Melinda has chocolate on the left side of her chin. I had to come up with subtle scenes where the reader can't see the bottom of Melinda's chin yet. 

After receiving feedback about the sketches, I moved on to the final illustrations. This was my first time creating scenes that moved from room to room. The project was like a spot-the-difference game, always double checking that the furniture, colors, and layout stayed consistent. I was happy with the end result and had a lot of fun creating this project.