start to finish: villdyr commission

hey all! just finished a very involved, long overdue commission. I had the sketch files still on-hand so I saved my step process & thought I could upload it here, maybe. These are just the general guidelines I take in finishing more detailed scene commissions.

keep in mind that when I work with colors/ shading, I ALWAYS start from the bottom layer and work my way up

1. sketch

WELL, first I actually thumbnail the picture out, draw stick figures and figure out what I want the perspective to be, and then draw very simple shapes over them as a guideline for how the picture is going to look, but I never save them or show them to people because its essentially like showing someone a stick figure with circles drawn over it. THIS step is what comes AFTER that: I sketch up the pre-lineart sketch, a more refined sketch that I can actually use to put my lines over. this is usually what I send to my commissioners before they confirm their commission

2. COLOR KEY

a very messy color key to help me figure out the shading / palette / lighthouse for a picture. most finished products dont line up with the color key EXACTLY, but thats fine because its just the skeleton of what colors Im going to slap where when I'm filling in the lines.

4. LINES

the least fun part ! all in the name. just making the lines look good.

5. FLATS

just fill in all the the base colors (midtones) of the piece 

6. SHADING

basic shading ! just the areas that are either lit up, or shadowed by the light source, as well as simple gradient work to the highlights transition to the midtones

7. DETAIL WORK

this is where I make things pop a little, adding secondary sources of light, highlights, lowlights & texture to the layers, as well as a few more gradients if needed

7. FINISHING TOUCHES

then I usually throw in a few light/dark filter gradients to keep the picture looking fluid. For this one I put a red gradient over the background, the motorcycle, and the character facing the back, and a blue one facing the front/center of the picture, to keep the viewers attention focused on the motorcycle. throw in a few shinies for good measure & slap a watermark on it and call it a day