ANT 3 Tutorial

This is my 3rd Photoshop painting of the character 'Ant' which is the main character from Mario Gully's comic book series of the same name. This is strictly fan art and my appreciation for the character. Now for the tute: 

1-It started out as a basic torso and head drawing. Mario had said he was planning on giving up on the character. The idea of this piece was to give Mario inspiration to keep going and not give up. Obstacles become credible when you allow them to be but Mario pushed forward. Through him, Ant lives on.... 

2- Establishing lighting/shadows with a basic rendering of the head and torso. 

3- The torso/head combo seemed like it was missing something so i decided to make this similar to my ANT 2 piece by adding arms and thighs. Hands were saved for later (all my artist friends know how much of a pain hands are-ugh). 

4- Tightening up the transitions from light to dark giving the figure a smooth look...hands still left untouched. 

5- And now, the accursed hand painting. Photo refs weren't cutting it and after about 2 weeks trying to figure out how to get them to look right, i burned out. It gave me time to think and i finally got the idea of looking at my own hands. You can flip images in Photoshop. I just had to keep hands/fists steady. I used my left hand (my right hand was doing the painting) for both of Ant's. Lighting was improvised (figure was from imagination). 

6-Antennae (and eye color-a basic orange/yellow) were painted last. Getting the perfect angle on them to direct your eye from the top of her head, through her breasts to her fists. There were alot more layers involved but this tutorial is being kept basic. ;P 

7-9-Close-ups of the hands....my hands....and the antennae.