This shows the progression of my most recent drawing. As you can see I don't work the entire page all at once, but rather in small areas. I do usually start with the background and work my way forward, using a grid system to make sure that everything stays in proportion and is placed where I want it from my initial layout.
The title of this piece is Fire Elemental: Passion's Resolve, 12"x24", drawn on Strathmore 400 Illustration Board with .03 and .02 2B mechanical pencils.
This photo is taken on my drawing board, I use load my reference photos on my iPad making it easy to swipe from one to another and enlarge areas to see the detail.
I hadn't ever tried to draw fire before starting this piece and have to say it was a bit intimidating until I started to get into it. At this stage I've started to add the figure that will be incorporated into the drawing.
The drawing is almost complete. Since this photo was taken I've added some slightly lighter detail to the very dark area on the lower right as well as making minor corrections in various other areas.