Traditional (colored pencil) Artwork

Note: This information is presented informally. I'm not a professional, by any means. Feel free to ask me questions if you'd like to, but take none of what's presented here as gospel truth.

Character Used: SailorSolbria : Permission given by owner SailorTachine.

IMG 01: Lay out your pose. Some people start with stick figures and/or collections of polygons and shapes to map out body parts. I just trace the shapes of the body. Having those laid out helps me plot out the motion and perspective for when clothing is added.

IMG 02: In which a lot has changed. Some things are now more streamlined, and there's a fuku there. IRL, the process of finalizing this sketch took me about two hours, give or take.

IMG 03: Base inking. This particular sketch didn't have any REALLY fine lines. If you can't find a .005 pen, just use a .01 and keep the pressure light. I left the pencil lines in this scan to show where they are in relation to the ink lines.

IMG 04: Erase the pencil lines, thoroughly. Unfortunately, my .01 has taken a lot of abuse with the CTS Project, and the eraser refills I have are a little harder than the Pentel ones and they tend to dim the ink a little. In some cases this might help. In most, nah.

IMG 05: Ohmigawd, TECHNIQUE. Notice that some lines are now thicker than others. That's done with the .03. Objects in motion, or that are in front of other things, get a thicker line to separate them from whatever they're in front of. The only way I can explain this is it helps to differentiate those sections of the figure from the others, breaking up the overall motion a little... if that makes sense at all.

IMG 06: Outlines. Something I just do, part of the style. Other artists do this as well, and I myself picked it up from a friend, so I can't lay any claim to this bit. But whee, OUTLINES. Incidentally, if there are any small mess-ups around the edges of the figure, this is one easy way to cover them up.

IMG 07: Final inkage. If you have mistakes you can't outline over, here's a secret. A Liquid Paper white-out pen (PEN, not anything else) is both inexpensive and handy. We all mess up now and then, right?

TIP: Photocopy your original ink work, and use the copied version for coloring. That way, if you make mistakes, you can go back and redo things as many times as you like without harming the original picture.

IMG 08: What I refer to as the "base layer". In this case, since Solbria's on the dark side, Prismacolor Dark Brown (also known as Dark Umber, I think). The trick is to not put too much pressure on the pencil. You want enough to lay a nice even layer of color down on the paper without being too dark or heavy.
Note: Several pieces of Solbria's fuku are made of translucent fabric. I want her skin tone to show through, but because of the fabric's being over the skin, I don't need the full shading process. I've left those in a very light Dark Brown for now (which I went over with the colorless blender, because it tends to "seal" the pencil, helping to keep it from smudging, which Prismacolors will do).

IMG 09: Layers two and three. Over the Dark Brown is another light layer of Crayola Brown. I went over this with the colorless blender to even it out.

IMG 10: Finishing touches. Shading was done with Prismacolor Black. I went over that with Crayola Taupe to even it out a bit, then put on a few highlights in Prismacolor White. For less obvious highlights, I could and sometimes do use Prismacolor French Grey. Just not this time. I also gave her a touch of lip color, this time in Prismacolor Scarlet Lake.

IMG 11: The whites of her eyes have been base-shaded with Crayola Slate. I went over that with Prismacolor Cloud Blue, deepened the shadows with Crayola Cool Grey, and then made a pass with the Prismacolor White for shine. We'll see a lot more P-White, since I use it for the brightest highlights on just about everything ^^;
Also lay down the base layer for her eyes in Prismacolor Poppy Red (has an orange tint to it).

IMG 12: And the eyes are done. Layer two was Crayola Maroon. Shaded (from the top down) with Prismacolor Black, then went over the shiny spots with Prismacolor White to soften their edges up a little.

IMG 13: Moving on to the hair. Another wonderful thing about white - well, wonderful for me, probably annoying to anyone who's ever had to paint a house - is that it can be shaded with just about any other color out there. In this case, since Solbria has such a warm palette, I decided on a warm sort of white. The base shading, done very lightly, and I guess best described as sort of like cel shading, is Crayola Sand. Over that goes a light layer of Crayola Cool Grey, done in short strokes as opposed to blocks or "areas". Ran the (you guessed it) P-White over the uncolored parts (now our highlights) to brighten and smooth a little, then added a hint of Crayola Taupe to the darker parts.
Probably sounds crazy, but I like to try and use the stroke method of shading on hair, since it looks more hairlike to me. Kind of like some of the digital coloring tutorials recommend you do. IMHO, coloring "with the grain" of the hair helps, too.

IMG 14: More white parts, this time on the fuku itself. Base shading done with Prismacolor Warm Grey. Doesn't look like too awful much yet, does it?

IMG 15: But wait, there's more! Deepened the shadows with the Crayola Cool Grey again, then overlaid that with the P-White, which is actually a little brighter than the paper's normal color. Sometimes, I also use this to smooth things out, especially with clothing or hair highlights.

IMG 16: A base layer of Prismacolor Canary Yellow. Personally, I don't like trying to work with yellows, as they always seem to come out too bright. But there are ways around that (which I haven't found yet..).

IMG 17: I actually used two different yellows over the base layer, because I wanted to try making the yellow of her bows lighter than that of the bodice. So the bodice gets Crayola Golden Yellow, and the bows get Crayola (just plain) Yellow. Not too noticeable. Eh.

IMG 18: There are ways to try and mute a color. Using muted colors to shade it is one of them. Prismacolor Dark Brown (a very light layer, mind you) with a blending overlay of Crayola Grey (not Cool Grey, it has bluish tones). Prismacolor White for the highlights again.

IMG 19: The bows simply received two layers of greys. Prismacolor Warm Grey blended with Crayola Grey, and P-White again for highlights and a little overall blending.

IMG 20: A base layer of Prismacolor Orange. All the names they have for the other shades, and this is just ORANGE. *facepalm*

IMG 21: I had a moment of panic on the orange parts. Overlaid the P-Orange with Crayola Light Orange (which on its own is almost too pale to use for much of anything). Orange is another one of those colors that sends my scanner on acid trips, so I tried to mute this a bit as well. Shaded with Prismacolor Black, and then overlaid that with Prismacolor Cream (which is in actuality a very pale yellow), using the Cream to smudge the Black out in an attempt at blending. Probably won't attempt that again.
Several self-deprecating minutes later, I decided to try and salvage it rather than start over. HUGE highlights in P-White, then I simply went over the shadowed parts with Crayola Orange. Fortunately, it doesn't look too awful ^^;
I hope.

IMG 22: Shiny bits. The gems were fairly easy - though I got the colors on the top and bottom ones reversed (sorry, Lariel). Just one layer of their respective colors, with a touch of red or red-orange and a dab of P-White for highlights. Not perfect.
The tiara and her earrings I used standard gold coloring technique on. Well, standard for me anyway. Prismacolor Metallic Gold (Crayola Gold works just as well for this, actually) with a light overlay of Crayola Golden Yellow for added yellowness. Shaded with Prismacolor Dark Brown and highlighted with P-White.

End Notes: Had I done the coloring in one sitting, it probably would have taken between three and four hours, but then this is a full-page sketch. How much time it takes also depends on things like attention to detail, outside distractions, smoke and potty breaks, and other things.
The attack effect will probably be left out of the final product, since I never was good at that sort of thing. It could be replaced with Photoshop effects fairly easily, though.

Just as an aside, I almost always start with the skin. Why? Because it's underneath everything else (well, it is if your character's got clothes on, anyway). This is the same kind of thing as some of the lines being thicker than others. I may be delusional, but coloring the exposed skin first seems to add to the "Hi, I'm over bones but under clothing" effect. *shrug*

IMG 02: The gold has been shaded with Crayola Dark Brown, and the silver with Crayola Black. Why dark brown? It seems to me to keep the gold warmer in tone. In addition to the regular shading, there's also a dark band right under the highlight. I honestly don't know how to explain the why of this aside from just saying it makes it look more metallic. Sorry ^^;
The highlights have been blended slightly with P-White. On the silver example it seems to have given it a "brushed" look. On the gold, it brings out the yellow.

IMG 03: You can also do this with metallic gel pens. A lot of the clothing details, the buckles, spurs and gun were done with gold and silver gel pen, then shaded as above. It's a little harder to pull off since the nib of the pen can score the paper slightly during the coloring process, and you have to wait for the ink to dry (silver takes longer for some reason, and is more likely to smear), but you can shade over the metallic parts this way at the same time you're shading other things - for example the touches here on the chaps. (character pictured is Kashira, who belongs to Kashira - this is an old contest entry)
It doesn't scan too well, but the original will look like some kind of limited-edition foil-cover whatsit, which is kind of cool. I tend to use this when I'm feeling lazy, or am working on a display sketch or a commission which the commissioner will receive when I'm done.