I should have submitted this earlier along with the finished work, but I let it sit around on my computer for a month or so for some reason.

1. This is a picture that I took of the first drawing of Marvin that I did. I'm not sure how old this is, but it's pretty old.

2. This is the scanned line art that I did. I sketch and ink things traditionally because it's easier and faster for me to do. I adjusted it in Photoshop so that the whites are white and the blacks are black. I also fix up some of the mistakes I made while inking this so everything looks the way it should look.

3. I create one layer for a simple background gradient, and another layer for the flat colors. Here, I'm concerned about getting a good color scheme going to establish the mood and feel I want. I select a darker color so the highlights stand out more. I usually just slap some color down on the character, not worrying about going outside the lines. When I'm happy with the colors, I come back and make the colors fit the lines.

4. I pick the light source and the shadow colors that I want (thus the splotches of pale yellow and dark purple). This helps me create a consistent light source to follow. You can see I am beginning to go over each of the different areas and shade/highlight them according to the light source. I use a combination of both hard and soft brushes, depending on how the form and the light interact. I also added in the markings of the fur so that it looks more like Marvin.

5. This is the finished piece. I added in a simple background (I really should have started to add this in around step three) and all of the shadows/highlights are completed.

You can see the final piece here [link]

If you have any questions about this, please ask! I will do my best to try to explain.