Sorry for the somewhat off-color scans, but I want it to be fairly clear what I'm doing as far as strokes and guidelines go.

So I have my black paper. First thing I do is fret over colors. I found a blue that suits the reference material well, but red was a little trickier. I also have to decide where light is coming from. I decided to use his hands as the primary light source, and give the rest of him minimal shadow. If you're flinging magic, glowing is a prerequisite, right?

I used a really light blue I keep handy, plus hints of this odd blue-purple I like to edge out the ice. This ice is going to be nearly crystal clear, so they need to be clearly defined. Everything behind them is going to be kinda distorted and warped. Plus, if I color over them, it will be much easier to erase this way. Trust me on that one. It's a long explanation.

I splashed down a little blue and red, somewhat marking creases in his robe and shifting things a little. Also moved is glasses down, because otherwise I would have missed giving him much for eyes. I think a focused stare will help sell it. Let's see. The smoke-looking stuff around the icicle. Yeah. The light source is glowy hands, and I want to have the wisps of magic-stuff around them. They're going to look kinda like this, but we'll see.

As for the backdrop, I can't decide on anything much of detail. Or take away from the simple focus of mage badassery. Or I'm just too tired to worry right now. I'll scan my next progress report later, I don't feel like more scanning or typing for a while.

Advice: when working with colored pencils and markers, have a cache of nearly-white colors if you can. Cream, Sky Blue Light, 10% grey, eggshell, all of them can make things look much nicer than white. More on this when I inevitably talk about fur.