Playing With Paintings And Children

Ahhh...the sound of silence.  I love my grandchildren, don't get me wrong, but after a week of preschoolers, I'm happy about my silent house.  My two grandsons from Seattle visited over the Martin Luther King holiday (no school) and when they returned home, it snowed (no school again).  My daughter turned her house into a mini art studio!  They painted on the glass patio doors and made cookie crayons.  So adorable!  I think they had a great time playing with art.
Meanwhile, I'm playing with my own painting.  Awhile back I took a lot of photos of ducks and koi fish at the Missouri Botanical Garden, so I had one enlarged.  I usually try to take excellent photos and pretty much draw what I see.  This time, though, I'm changing things around because the photo is awful and I think I can do better.  I cropped it so it will be 10" X 10".  I'm kind of into the square format lately.  I want the water to be grayish blue (not yucky green).  I'll make one bright orange fish as the focal point.  The two ducks are Mallards, but I'm making them male (mating season) so they have more color.  I found some nice reference photos online so I can get the colors right.

                                        I'm using my photo (above).  Here's my drawing (below)

                                             

I tend to work all around the paper, doing some background, then some of the focal point, adjusting values along the way.  So far, I've done a bit of the upper left corner of the water, with some of the orange fish.  I've laid in some blueish green for the Mallard's distinctive head.  Back and forth it goes.  What's your process?  I'm off to check my inbox, maybe there are more photos of my grandkids playing with art...