The black & white version of the Elektra pin-up was ready in time for Wizard World, but I didn't have a chance to render it in color until now. Here's a look at steps it took to finish this piece:
Starting with the inked version, I transferred the image onto colored paper. I prefer to use Canson Mi-Teintes and Prismacolor pencils. I start by putting on some of the most extreme highlights and lowlights. This early in the game, I need to be careful to keep my pencil work light, so I can map out the important shapes without really committing to anything.
After the values have been mapped out lightly, I can go in and pull out some of the highlights. At this point I'll usually revisit my reference photos and use them to figure out where the brightest lights and darkest darks are located.
Now that I've pushed the values on the figure just about as far as they'll go, I use photoshop to figure out what I should do with the background. After I've found something that looks good with the foreground, it's just a few more minutes of colored pencil work and it's ready to sign!
