Fun In The Sun

So I have noticed recently that my work is mainly sketch work. I figured some a bit more refined work would do my portfolio. I decided to do some kind of a dynamic sketch. I started off with a rough idea-

Once I felt like the sketch was dynamic and and I was happy with it I proceeded onto refining it:

I resided the dog to make it a bit more proportionate to the girl and I have made him facing forward because I wanted to emphasises the facial features of my characters.

The I applied a mask for the characters and started off doing the shadows. Back hen I was making posters with Wing for applied I discovered clipping masks which made my life so much easier. So I applied that to this drawing.

Then I applied a separate layer of high lights incase I wanted to re adjust it and if i did not like it it would be easier to erase. Once I was happy with the colouring I moved onto the background.

I did not want the background to take any attention away from the characters yet help set the action for them. So I figure simple field with couple of trees would do.To finish it off and give it a bit more depth and highlight the characters, for darker contrast I put it some mountains in the back. So here is the finished drawing.