How to Dress in the Spring . . . in Ohio

Hi there! Welcome to spring in Ohio! My husband and I spent a day in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago and this is how one of our granddaughters was dressed, before she ended up putting on a bathing suit to play in water from the garden hose! She soon ran to me, (I was wearing a light, winter jacket) so I could gather her up in my sun-warmed arms, where she chose to nap for about an hour.  Ahhhh bliss!

Here's a drawing I did in my sketchbook, a few days later, working from the photo I had taken.

I dropped the drawing into the Procreate app on my iPad, and gave it a light bit of color using a transparent airbrushed layer.  

I then got rid of the pencil sketch layer, and reworked it all digitally. I wish I had kept the image of what the airbrushed layer looked like by itself. I'll try to be more diligent about retaining my process.

Lastly, I put all that aside and did a more cartoonish drawing of the same image, using just my digital app.

I was almost there but not a fan of the face. I didn't think the cartoon resembled her very much. I went back to the drawing board, did a sketch with a REAL pencil, and in one quick attempt, was able to find what I was looking for. 

This sketch, I dropped over the top of the cartoon image, colored it up, and now have what you see at the top of the page.

It's funny, but I find it very difficult to work out new ideas or solve problems when I'm working digitally. I aways find that when I return to my graphite pencil or simple black ink pen, I'm able to think more clearly and I'm better at the planning stage of the creation.

Stop in next Wednesday for my contribution to Mermay! https://www.mermay.com/