Day 2
I was happy to be sketching yesterday.  But, I knew the sketch was off.  For today's project, I decided to take the photograph, and add a layer in Photoshop.  In the new layer, I sketched all of Pearl's features on top of the photo.  It was like tracing a picture instead of drawing it yourself.  I thought it would be easy, but once you draw on top, it is hard to see what is under and whether you got it right or not.  So I started drawing with a more transparent brush, that helped, but ultimately, the sketch was way too light.  And as you can see from today's sketch, her nose still needs more shading. Then I made the photograph invisible and worked just on my sketch.  I found the Blur tool.  That is cool!   It blends the fine pencil lines to make it look more smooth, like watercolor.  Occasionally, I would view the real photo underneath to check my progress.  It was kind of fun. 

Then for my last trick, drum roll please.... , I copied today's drawing and pasted it on top of yesterday's sketch adjusting the scale as necessary.  It was SO EASY to see where my proportions got wrong.  Yesterday, Pearl's eyes were a bit too close together, and her left eye was too low.  I got her nose too long, her ear too big, and the shape of the top of her head was off.  It is easy when drawing faces to be tricked into drawing things the way your brain has labeled them and get the proportions wrong.  The right side of the brain argues with the left and vice versa, and I don't SEE the shapes and proportions as well.  Today's drawing is lovely, pretty, and looks close to real to me.  But it is what it is, a tracing.  Satisfying learning experience today!