I’m in the planning stages of painting a mural in a baby’s room. The parents are expecting a girl and want the theme of the mural to be fairies. I’ve already made several drawings that we’ll use on the wall. For this drawing I thought I’d share some of the process with you. In the other drawings the fairies are actively doing a variety of things. I thought they needed a rest so I drew a fairy sleeping. This might come in handy some day during the it’s-time-to-take-a-nap battle.

First an explanation of the four thumbnails, from left to right. I did a quick search of the internet and Tinkerbell inspired me to switch from a tranquil slumber to one with her legs and arms hanging out of the basket. An even quicker search came up with a basket I liked which I altered to something that looked more like what a fairy would take a nap in. I put a blank piece of paper over my pencil-drawn basket and drew my fairy sound asleep, shoes tossed aside. I drew the basket and the napping fairy separately because I didn’t want to have to keep re-drawing the basket whenever I didn’t like something with the fairy.

Lastly, I scanned my pencil drawings of the basket and the fairy into Photoshop, created a new layer and drew the “ink” version on the computer.

When she finally gets onto the wall the snoozing fairy will be in color.