Rarity WIPs
I didn't do it in an orderly manner as I seldom jumped steps but I will try to explain how I did it from stage 1 to 16. Took me very long to make these WIPs with captions, spent 1 & a half days leisurely.
Stage 1: Sketched pony on paper with pencil.
Stage 2: Cleaned up the line art in Photoshop.
Stage 3: Colored everything in flat colors to get a better idea of how it should look like, however, still lacked the foresight because I was inexperienced.
Stage 4: Confidence grew after I've gotten her face right.
Stage 5: Settled down on this fashion design with transparent glass slippers & transparent chiffon or tulle.
Stage 6: Stroked the strands using only 2 tones of purple alternately (brush size: 5 px), basically creating stripes of the hair texture. Then used the Smudge Tool (brush size: also 5 px) to smoothen.
Stage 7: Painted the buttbow opaque first, with its tones.
Stage 8: Reduced the opacity of the buttbow to 47%. Painted a Multiply layer of its darker tones, & above that layer, painted a Normal layer of its highlights.
Stage 9: Painted the shoes bit by bit from matt to metallic.
Stage 10: Similarly to what I did for the buttbow, I reduced the opacity of the shoes, added a Multiply layer of its darker tones, & added a Normal layer of its highlights.
Stage 11: Corrected the soles by making them thicker, added more highlights for glossiness.
Stage 12: Preferred the right Cutie Mark to the left.
Stage 13: Hair from left to right, before & after, see the differences? Added lighter highlights & darker shades.
Stage 14: Lighten her skin tone as she's a white unicorn, not grey. I always work from dark to light.
Stage 15: I usually paint the cast shadows during the last or penultimate step, on a transparent Multiply layer.
Stage 16: Squared away with the final touch up of increasing mainly the Cyan of the pony in Color Balance to match the background, that's all.