Four

Pic 1 is the good ol sketch, I never have a solid concept in mind, it's more of thinking in a flow state. 90% of the time I start with the head and "pull out" the rest of the body. I use that language as it describes the motion and sensation for me accurately, my hand moves quickly and mentally I'm thinking of smearing clay around to achieve forms that compliment each other. This is mostly throwing proper anatomy to the wind and relying on superficial knowledge and instinct regarding shape language, understanding of which comes with time.

Pic 2 is beginning lineart, and a good example of picking and choosing. Your sketch doesn't have to rule over your lineart, it can be more of a guide or jumping off point (your sketch can also be your lineart I'll have an example eventually). You can see there are several places where the lineart deviates from the sketch, mostly in the placement of horns. This is why I call sketching note-taking more than anything.

Pic 3 is mostly finished lineart, and again I could call this done if I wanted to. Lately I've been actively thinking "I want to do more in-depth lineart", so rather than stop here, about an hour in, I see how much time I can squeeze into it. I think overall this was 1-1.5 hrs, though I was streaming an reading chat so idk how much faster it would have been otherwise.

Pic 4 is another 15 min added, subtle shadows, more details, and defining forms a little more than I usually do. Notice that there's an even distribution of that solid fill color across the body. This prevents any part from looking out of place, and a solid understanding of ⭐️cast shadows⭐️ helps make the character look more convincing and tangible. It also helps to strategically avoid dwelling on complicated arms crossing in the front lol.

Pic 5 is the finished piece with outline, semi-transparent fill erasure, grain, and red gradient. Notice too I completely changed the wings because they looked goofy af, if something in your head is telling you to change an element in your piece, even though you might've spent a lot of time there, change it. Cropping is something I havent touched on, and my biggest thing is, assuming it's a full body like what I usually do, crop the character in such a way that they don't feel like they're stuck in a box. Idk though that could look cool depending on the design it's all about what you want out of composition. 

The coloring on this guy is coming out really nice excited to write it all up