Lewa Phantoka in flight, colored version

 I've finally done it, I colored the Lewa Phantoka drawing from so long ago, just like I said I would. For original pencil sketch, see here http://bionicfuzion.blogspot.com/2011/10/toa-lewa-pencil-drawing.html

I went through several stages to color it; first I went over the original sketch and made a digital outline, then I put in base colors, followed by shading, and then lighting.

I felt a bit unsatisfied with the lighting results, mostly because I felt there was too much lighting... but I worked around that factor rather than trying to redo it. I kept both the shaded version, and overly lit version, feeling that both are good, they just belong in separate scenes. The shaded version is easier to look at, but the lit one, when put onto a proper background, looks pretty cool.
The way I worked around my dissatisfaction, was by thinking, if the character is brightly lit, put him on a background that fits his lighting; and I did just that. I made two pictures with added backgrounds that compliment the lighting, rather than work against it. Since I want to keep this post purely for the base image, I'm going to post the illustrated versions in a second post.

 (Above) shaded version.

(Below) digital outline.. please ask if you'd like to use it as a coloring page.