The way I draw my girl.

I consider that I have to stress out the personal pronoun "I" here, because this is the way that I (so to insist...) draw my girl with the (prehistoric) paint software that I have. If you wanted to draw Madodo, you´d probably do it a different way, since you must be using a different paint software; and also, you´ll probably better wait that I finish a tutorial on how to draw her, with tips on her design and body features.

 For now, here you are a description of each of the steps that I follow to work on Madodo, although these steps apply in general to every cartoon character that I draw. I don´t work on different layers (as most people do), but just on one, and the whole process takes me between half an hour and a whole hour, depending on the complexity of the character   (Madodo is of the simplest ones, though  ).

STEP 1: like anybody else who still today starts their drawings out of hand-colored drafts, I trace the basic lines on my girl with quick and soft pencil traces. I tend to save a lot of material, and when it comes to paper, I usually take sheets that are already printed to one side

STEP 2: Once the definitive shape is decided, I retrace the lines that I want with a black pen...

STEP 3: ... before erasing every pencil trace. Then I scan the draft, and copy and paste it to my paint software...

STEP 4: ... thanks to which magnifying glass can I see that the lines are too pixelated, and in different grey tones.

STEP 5: That needs to be cleaned, so I pick a light color at random (normally light green or blue) and retrace the INNER lines with the pencil tool. With the same colors, but with the brush tool (adjusted to not so thick) I retrace the different sections from Madodo´s hair and fill it in.

STEP 6: Still with the brush tool (and keeping its thickness setup before) I retrace the OUTER lines in a flat brown of a hue pretty similar to Madodo´s skin (and a sandy color for the back of her hands and feet). Then, with the lace tool, I select every trace on the grey pixels from the original draft and remove them, so that the picture remains as clean as possible with flat color lines only. 

STEP 7: With the picture cleaned up from traces from the draft I can fill the shape in flat colors. At times some color changes are needed so that different areas do not merge into one by using the same color (psychedelic Madodo here, eh?... )

STEP 8: Time to shade (with darker colors from the chosen ones, of course), and when you do this, you have to bear two things on mind. First of all, chose the direction the light comes from. Then, yet more important, try and imagine or visualize the character as a 3D model, so as to adapt the shading to the shape or volume of the character
(Now that I look at it, I notice that I forgot some shading on her butt, to make it look more rounded than flat, as it does look here )

STEP 9: Still in flat colors, it is time to provide the character with more accurate colors, so that Madodo´s hair finally becomes black now,a s it is supposed to be. The inner lines are also retraced (black in this case, since Madodo has a dark brown skin).

STEP 10: The possibility of gradient combinations with my veteran paint software is unlimited, and I cannot remember the reference for it now XP Anyway, once I got the right gradients, I chose them to be adapted to the character´s shape, so that the lighter hue from the gradient remains inside the area, and the darker one outside. This helps a lot to make the character seem more 3D-like.
 At this point, in front views I provide Madodo with her... eeeerrrrrr... her... pubic hair, since I am afraid that I don´t like shaved pubis much (not at least on Madodo )
 At times, too, I stop here to behold her in her most natural state... 

STEP 11: ... but when it´s time to become serious, I go on and dress her up, starting with her skirt and repeating the whole process from the character itself; staring with flat colors and blahblahblahblah...

STEP 12: with skirt on, necklaces, armbands and earrings, is Madodo ready for the party