I always joke that when my dog dies, I'll turn him into a hat. So, my before & after theme is Dog Hat.

Too morbid?

I use humor to cope with reality. 

Here are my initial sketches for layout:

I'm typically a line-drawer.

My first approach was this layout/concept of stacking girl/dog-hat/and then dog spirit on top.

And since I'm typically a line-drawer, I played with brush and inks. Playing with layers, as suggested.

This is where I landed, and it felt too morbid and sad. I think it'd take some extra time to get the right tone for a taxidermy hat.

PS: I'm not blonde.

So I removed the dog-hat altogether because the before/after concept of the dog-hat is still there in spirit!

And I enjoyed the idea of him posing on a top-bun. Echoes a tiny planet.

Played with layers and textures again.

My dog hates crows.

Resulting in these two illustrations. They still look a little too serious for me.

But I learned SO MUCH. Turns out I love going all loose and brushy and seeing some of the photoshop techniques blew my mind and has opened up a ton more possibilities for me. 

Loved the class, thank you so much!