Growing Up in Nowhere

The three creatures in this pic are the main "mascots" of my comic strip, Nowhere University. I've so far just barely introduced the dragon into the strip, and much later the black cat and unisus will come in. And MUCH later in the strip, they get ahold of transformation magic, and are not quite so little anymore...
The background was annoying to make. I really couldn't think of anything, so I came up with some random gradient. Then I made another layer (this is in photoshop, btw) with some crazy brushes that you really can't see that well, because I stuck that layer on 40% transparency (or something like that). Then to top it off, I went back to the gradient layer and discovered the magic of the Liquify command. ^_^ Fun stuff! The thing's like the blur tool, only you can do SO MUCH MORE with it.
So enjoy my pic! Eventually, I'll make color pics of the smaller and larger mascots seperatlely. In the meantime, this is my new voting picture for my strip.

EDIT: OK, I've since added the unisus (Starlight) to the strip, and I'm in the process of introducing the cat. I've also realized a slight coloring problem with the pic, since the cat's eyes are supposed to be green, not gold. Hmm. Also, the dragon's name is now Spike.