Click to see snapshots of the process, which I describe below 1-The idea- Just a sketch. No composition. 2-Grayscale planning- positioning, mapping values 3-Colormapping- Make a "color" layer over grayscale, map lighting and shadow colors, as well as the perspective colors. Things in the distance become the color of the sky, especially shadows. (shadow color transition from purple to green/blue) 4-Flats- The actual colors of characters and setting. Minimal lighting. 5-Flats+Lighting- duplicate colormapped grayscale layers a bunch of times, making an ordering (bottom->top) them in this general way above flats: Multiply->Burn->Overlay->Color Dodge->Normal. Reduce color layer opacity as needed to maintain realistic environment. 6-Final-Painting, airbrushing(for a glow), tweaking proportions, texturing (painting with various brushes), reflective lighting (last two pictures are a final grayscale and a zoomed in pic. Not important to the process.)
Everything made by myself