Here's the rough, pen doodled scratch sheet I had made for the infamous 3rd light warrior, Fighter.

I didn't draw these characters in any particular order... well except for Black Mage, I knew he'd be easiest ^_^

As you could see, after red mage I had gained confidence and my skills had DRASTICALLY increased since my (very) rough start. I had proportions more or less down, I was taking risks on details, adding to the complexity of my drawings and basically pushing myself as hard as I could.

I still wasn't using references of any form at this point. I wanted to learn the hard way so I would KNOW it and this stubbornness lead to some of my roughs taking over an hour and my finals taking dozens of hours as I brute forced my way through.