This is the image that I'm most pleased with the progress at the moment. The first image was just a quick putting down of the idea in my head and seeing if it worked. It didn't! I didn't get as far as putting the city in the background before I abandoned it. The idea was to try and get the balcony to match the river of the first illustration and I drew sketch after sketch of balcony designs trying to make it work, but big ones were too clumsy and narrower ones looked too real and ornate. Then after going back to my thumbnail sketches and the book, I decided a railing was better. Going on the Roman theme in the book I've based the railing on an aqueduct and also the city has some domes, arches, "aqueduct" railings etc based on Roman architecture. I'm very pleased with the sense of space, but it caused me a lot of problems when I went back to the first illustration, as mentioned. I still need to put fireworks in, as the book mentions the noise of a celebration and this was the best way I could think of to impy