Basketball Jones

A woman contacted me to do some illustrations for a story she wants to shop around to book publishers. It's a very hard field to crack into (especially with every parent or celebrity believing they can write a better children's book than the one they're currently reading to their child). I'll help her put together a book dummy she can submit into the vast sea of unsolicited manuscripts. Here's what she gave me:

Here's what I showed her: Here's a draft. I recently learned how to use the gradient tool in Photoshop and have been going a little overboard with every background lately.