Traditional (mixed media) tutorial

This is a little tutorial (see explanations at the bottom of this description) for my latest traditional mixed media drawing "Loki" (Tom Hiddleston as Loki from the movie The Avengers).
I photographed the steps 1-11 with my Canon EOS 600D (EOS Rebel T3i) without flash. I'm sorry for the bad quality, but the light conditions were not very good. Step 12 is the scan.

Please don't upload my pictures somewhere else without my permission. Don't infringe copyright!

Here are some more detailed step by step tutorials/descriptions for colored pencil and mixed media + the finished drawing:


Here is my summarized working process for this drawing:
Sorry in advance for all the mistakes (It would have been much more easier to write this in German!).

First off here my equipment:
- a printed reference picture (edited in photoshop, because screencaps are often too dark!) and laptop to zoom in (details!)
- paper A4 (210x297mm, 190 g/m²)
- Faber-Castell pencil H3 and HB or Faber-Castell grip 1345 HB 0.5
- Faber-Castell Perfection 7056 (eraser pencil), eraser, coloured pencil sharpener, set square or ruler
- Copic Ciao markers
- Faber-Castell Polychromos artists' colour pencils
- uni-ball Signo pigment ink um-153 white

step 1: Grid method for major outlines: Draw a grid on the paper (H3 and don't press too much, because you have to remove it and don't want to get "grooves/furrows"!!!) and on the reference picture. Draw the important outlines with a graphite pencil HB.
step 2: Erase the grid lines completely and the outlines so that you can barely see them.
step 3: Draw all outlines and details properly (you can also "test" a few shadows in order to make sure that the face looks good).
step 4: Erase everything a little bit (especially in bright areas!).
step 5 - 7: Base colouring with markers. I also blended a few colours (works only with thick paper >180g/m², because otherwise it would bleed through and marker paper is not so good for colored pencil!), because I don't have so many Copics. Side note for step 7: There is already a little bit of colored pencil in the face to check the likeness again (eyes, nose, mouth) and too smoothen the skin texture.
step 8: Addition of colored pencil layers to the background (black, different shades of blue, cold grey and white for the stars -> you can apply white colored pencil on a black or very dark marker layer!) + a few colourful highlights for his armour (blue and ochre) and grey.
step 9: Near completion of his armor (black, different shades of blue and cold grey -> start with the colourful details, add dark shadows and/or dark details and blend everything with a lighter colour e.g. light grey or light blue in this case) + some more grey colored pencil layers for his helmet
step 10: Final colouring of the helmet (a bit ochre, differeng shades of grey and blue). Adding of white highlights with a white gel pen.
step 11: Define (/remove parts of) the white gel pen lines/dots with a white or dark colored pencil (depends on area). Colouring of the face. Side note: Is something wrong with face? => turn the reference and the drawing upside down, then it's easier to spot mistakes (sounds strange, but it helps a lot)!
step 12: scan (edit the picture in Photoshop CS5: cut out the border, edit brightness/contrast and colour balance to resemble the original drawing)

More side notes:
- Usually I start with the face, because when it's completely messed up I have to start again (this happened one time so far). But the picture is so dark, that I finished it at the end, because I often draw it too bright in the beginning so that I have to darken it in the end...
- Almost every time I print the reference picture two times, because I don't like to look at a grid the whole time.
- In this example the grid is "everywhere" in the beginning, but most of the time I draw the grid where I need it. You can use a whole grid for a very dark picture like this, but if you use a reference with many white or bright areas it's almost impossible to let the lines or some remains disappear.
- You can also use the grid method without step 2 and just draw everything properly with the grid (I just use it for important outlines and then I try to draw everything else without grid).
- This picture is very dark, so I used a marker base layer almost everywhere. Most of the time I just use it only for a few parts.

Time: maybe something about 25 hours?