Illustrating Children's Song "Top of the Moon"

As a new Artrage user, I'm trying to create a series of illustrations for a song I wrote about mice who have a splendid life on the moon. The next picture will show that the danger was not as great as it appears here. Challenging at this point: Using the oil brush to distribute shades of color and get smooth transitions without overusing the knife. (Due to inability to control application of color, the sky is too smoothed out for my taste and the stars are too bland). I followed an old tutorial by someonesane and duplicated the moon layer, blurring the one underneath to get a glow. Also from that tutorial, I added texture on two layers filled with concrete and coarse paper with blending mode overlay. What I liked about working with Artrage is that my line work was a guide that could be deleted afterwards. Perhaps some of you can see what I'm trying to do and have some helpful suggestions,
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This is the second illustration, it should now be clear why the mice did not have to be afraid of the ferocious cat.
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It looks like a fun story is developing here - looking forward to more instalments.:cool::cool:

Thanks, June. I'm on the level of a child doing finger painting, but enjoying working with Artrage.

Ha, ha, these are a good start:cool:
The “reveal” in the second image did make me chuckle:D

It's been a long time - This is supposed to show the mice having a good time, to finish Verse 1 that goes

There are no cats on the moon, indeed,
But don't believe it's cold and bare,
There's all the cheese a mouse can eat,
You'll never see a mousetrap there.

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