Ink and Steel progress shots

First, the drawing: 

Really loose blocking, to place everything in the composition - this is often transferred from the thumbnail. Then, I start on the face. (I write notes to myself as I draw, which are more often than not just self-abuse and sarcasm.)

I work from the face down, with some toning in the background to place the figure as I draw it in.

Drawing just about done!

When I'm done with the drawing, I scan it, blow it up to the size of my board, print it out, and transfer the lines with transfer paper. Then I paint:

My working setup: reference (color, value, misc), the drawing, ghetto-fab mahl stick (dowel + c-clamp), rag. Painting starts are ugly things. (Don't ask me why I toned my board orange.)

Still ugly.

Less ugly, but I've lost a lot of the drawing in the face.

End of the first pass on the face.

I stopped taking progress shots after this, it being around the time that I had my hissy fit and almost gave this painting up as a gross ugly stillborn failure. By the time I got over myself, I'd completely forgotten about documenting the progress.