Before I started arting I never realized how much planning went into illustrations-- not that it's necessary every time, but for complex paintings with unfamiliar subject matter the process is super helpful!
Long post under cut
step 1: comp thumbnails! super ugly is fine, and i usually am lasso tooling/erasing/moving stuff around until I find a composition I like (the framing is v important in this stage). I work very small, so I can't go detailed, and keep trying stuff until 3-5 thumbs that I like.
step 2: Sketch a little more to figure out shapes, head orientation, and flesh out the 3d a bit more (ie unbald my girls)
step 3: research!!!! cannot stress enough how crucial this is, I use pure ref and try to find SPECIFIC reference of things-- lots of historical dresses, victorian interiors, chairs, portraits, maid uniforms, maids dressing their mistresses, vintage trinket catalogues-- ideally lots and lots, because then you can pull little bits from many different references to create something fresh and new :D
step 4: pick the thumbs I like the most, and try to capture the energy in a slightly more refined sketch, using reference to make things specific. I also like to take some time and do some studies of whatever I'm unfamiliar with, so I know how to design/draw it for my illustration. In this case I was looking at furniture, and specifically the kinds of detailing on the furniture that give it that victorian feel.
step 5: okay sorry after that I just do the rest. I know it's very "draw the rest of the fucking owl", but if I've planned well enough, from that point onwards my brain turns off and I just grind it out.
I kinda do different stuff for every illustration, but for this one I did lineart -> flats -> paint until i'm done. Some process shots:
For painting, I mostly think about warms vs cools and where I want my focal point to be. I think the most active brainpower is used in the earliest stages, personally. da final:
Loosely inspired by the poem "Warming Her Pearls" by Carol Ann Duffy, y'all should read the whole poem bc it lives rent free in my head all the time.
"Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress
bids me wear them, warm them, until evening
when I'll brush her hair. At six, I place them
round her cool, white throat. All day I think of her,"
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