I can't help he's one of my fav babs.
I did a step by step for this piece!

Step by step

1. The lines! Usually without a sketch, such as here. Which works for all simple poses or busts.
2. Base colors! Simple, how everyone does it. Gradients already included.
3. Set the shades, no blending. I just roughly put the shade where I want it to be. I don't use a set light source ever. So dw, your art can look good even if you don't know the perfect light rules! (I hope this may encourage some of you hahaha)
4. Blend Blend Blend. Usually this will leave shades rather light, so I'm not done here yet.
5. Add even darker shades. Don't be scared of going really dark. I feel a lot of beginners (me included) are scared to pick colors that are much darker than the base color. But at least for me I discovered that darker shades make it look much better. Also added some sparkles for the eyes / light reflections on the very top layer, above the lineart.
6. Light in the hair! Depending on the base color you can use darker, non white brush strokes here. But since his hair is already rather light, white it is.
7. Paint over and individual strand time. For this, I merge all layers and draw straight on top of the merged result. Usually, I do lighter har strands here. I also tend to draw over the outlines again, but this time with a very dark version of the base color. This achieves a little more painty, soft look.
8. Playin around with contrast/different color overlays until I find one I like best. Also, adding a simple asf background with some leaves. Gradient backgrounds tend to look good. Also never forget your signature!

That's it. It's hard to explain things I do automatically but if there's a step you'd like to see more in depth, let me know! owo/

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!! DO NOT UPLOAD / TRACE / USE / EDIT ANY OF MY WORK OR CHARACTERS WITHOUT MY PERMISSION !!