This guide was made for entry: Retired In Contest: fairies
step 1 of 5
Started with a sketch of the body to get the proportions right.
step 2 of 5
The clothes. I used warp on the leaf for the shirt and the pen tool on the sleeve and pants
step 3 of 5
Used Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels and Brightness Contrast to add depth to the clothes. Pen tool for the shoes. I had already done this for the hat, collar and sleeve before I thought to save. This is a before and after.
step 4 of 5
Used the pen tool to draw the wings and veins. Used a small amount of drop shadow and bevel and emboss. Used match color on the hand and borrowed and adjusted some of the background for the cane. Later, I desaturated the wings.
step 5 of 5
Reduced opacity on the background. Grassland brushes. Film grain filter for the sand. Gaussian blur on the shadows. Reduced opacity glow.