So here's a new one I thought I would share so I could get some feedback. I tried hard on this one and... some interesting things came to my attention. You can see the progression below, as well as the palette I used.
1.) I started with a basic human shape. I feel I can work better when I have something really basic to work off of, whether it be an outline or circle or whatever. That's probably nothing new, but its so easy to just want to attack it without any method.
2.) From there, I gave it a little more personality, making the outline into more of a trenchcoat outfit. I added a collar to it, defined some gloves, and decided I wanted a bit wider head for greater detail later.
3.) Started adding color. I decided to focus the initial palette around the purple color I put on the trenchcoat. Another interesting thing is how I ended up not using straight black and straight white at the end of my ramps; I liked how they were less intense and didn't pop so much. I also used some peach/brownish progression to split between the shoes and skin color.
4.) Started changing some of the outline colors. This is where I hue-shifted my purple towards blue and used that for the outline of the coat, and I was mildly surprised at how well it turned out. I had tried a couple other things, but this looked the best to my eye. Also outlined the shoes and head differently (as well as gave the head more of a chin); the fill color of the shoes is the same as the outline color of the head, FYI. That's good color usage, right?
5.) This is where the main touches came in terms of shading and detail. I've noticed just how versatile your grays can be. I combined these with some other colors to put some shading on the coat, and I saw how grays can blend in and look like the colors around it... at least it did enough to me, anyway. Added eyes and hair as well and shaded the legs, arms, gloves, and shoes.
6.) Put in some sci-fi touches at the end there, changed a little bit of the shading on the coat, and made the eyes a soft green.
Feedback and constructive criticism welcome!