For  lati_the_lombax's commission.

Normally one should do the background first, or in the very least as one is working on the figure. Due to the medium I plan to use for the sky though, that arrangement would be very very difficult to pull off and not risk muddying the marker. The ironwork will be added at the very last with watered-down acrylics.

I plan to tie in everything with blue shading--the beginnings can be seen in some of the shadows. Once the background is established I'll go through and tighten everything up.

One question though--I was considering having vines crawling up the stonework--would that be too much, or should I tone the idea down a touch and just put some discoloration like moss in some of the corners to make it more life-like? Obviously commissioner's say trumps all but I'm curious what others think =3