The drawing Stage:
-I use a tablet but you can do it the same way with a pencil and paper.

1). Firstly I start off by doing a rough thumbnail sketch of a pose I think might look good.
-My tablet brush throughout is set to vary size with pressure.


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2). When I'm happy with the pose I re-size it up to the size I'd like to work at.
-If you were doing this with pencil and paper a photocopier would be an ideal tool.


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3). The next stage is to overlay a transparent white layer over the top.
-With paper and pencil you'd put another sheet of paper over the top and use a lightbox or a window.


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4). Then I do another rough sketch over the top, using the image underneath as a guide. I just refine the image, block in where I think parts should go and get the general body shape right. -You'll notice that at each stage my lines get finer and finer, this is because I use a smaller “brush” each time.


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5). With that finished I flip that image horizontally so that I can better analyse any errors, then I put another white layer over the top, and do another slightly finer sketch with a smaller brush, further refining the figure and adding clothing to the simple body shape.
-with paper you flip the drawing on the lightbox and put a piece of white paper over the to- you can ink in the rough image if you like so it's easier to see.


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6). When I'm happy with that I flip the image again, overlay yet another white layer over the top and begin my final drawing. Because this is the final drawing I make sure of any big changes I want to make, like the positions of the legs, the tilt and length of the gun etc. and I carefully line in all the detail.


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The Colour stage:
-This is only for computer colouring.

7). Colour is very simple. Firstly I set the drawing layer to “multiply”. Then I make two layers underneath. The first layer is my main background layer. All I do is pick a nice gradient and apply it.


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8). For this image I chose a radial style gradient. The light colour is white and the dark colour is a browny yellow. This gives me the look of a dusty, desert sunlight effect with the sun behind the figure. So I add a small dark shadow to the figure's feet.


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9). Because the sun is behind the figure I decided to backlight it. So I chose some very dark colours from my pallet and blocked in the entire shape, keeping within the outlines. Dark purple for the skin, and almost back grey for the clothing.


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10). And finally the finished image. To finish of the colouring of the figure I firstly ad lighter tones of the colours I've used to the upper surfaces and the edges of the figure when the light would bleed past. Then I go over some surfaces (such as the skin), with a slightly redder tone, my brush is set to vary opacity with pressure (hard edges). I paint it on lightly.
Lastly I carefully paint in the fine details separately- like the buttons, belt clips etc.

-And I got ride of that sixth finger!-