Lights

• Then I colored it. On another layer I painted the hair without any lineart (so that they come more natural and I already know where to draw the outline). Again, don't think both face and hair looked so well-colored at first, they were brighter. In effect at the end of the drawing process I had to darken (multypling blue) them where the light wouldn't touch. Moreover the golden touches over the hair weren't there, at first, They were added later.

 

• I painted the coat and the scarf, always with the same technique: rough sketch + color blobs + actual shading + darkening at a second glance. 

 

• And now I added the light touches on the outline. I used the whitest yellow of the background and outlined her hair. It wasn't hard at all, afterall hair was already there. You don't even need to use a small brush because, especially with curly hair, light touches a lot of it. Some real examples: one and two. Of course I applied the same effect on the coat and the scarf, but painting with little strokes, so that it is implied they are made of wool or something similar. Face and buttons were painted with other different strokes.

 


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What I surely learnt with this picture is that, to help you finding the right colors, it's better to convert it sometimes to grayscale, so that you can see how the colors contrast together (and especially in this case, contrast is very important!). I've already been testing such a technique with my two last pictures (those symbolic ones, you know) and I have to say: it works. If you want to know more, here's a good tutorial:




I hope I answered your questions. If you don't have something clear, ask me!  
_{Sorry for the double comment, but only five thumbnails per comment are allowed.}

I don't have the pictures of the whole process anymore, anyway I can give you the levels of the final picture telling you what I did   



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• First I drew a quick sketch of what I wanted (inclining it a bit, since it was falling on the left):
  

• Then I colored the background. At first it was more rough than this one, but the main colors were there (that's what counts, afterall):
  

• Here's the most troublesome thing: choosing the right colors. After many attempts I found the main ones. If you wonder how, I myself didn't know, I choose "by eye". Surely I always picked dark and little saturated colors:

 

• Soon after I started with the lineart; I drew the face: