The Process
Want to know what the commission process will look like, what kind of updates you'll get, when to ask for what changes? Look no further! I'll be using this piece below as an example, working through the 6 steps I usually go through from start to finish! For flat color pieces, the process stops at Line Colors, which is second to last here!
Rough Sketch
This is the stage where we get the general basics of the piece down! I'll sketch out very loosely where characters are, and their general shapes + poses, and check in with you! Let me know here if there's any general things missing, like you'd like someone in a different spot, facing a different way, they're too big/small, they're missing limbs, etc - just the big things! Details of their patterns, clothes, textures, etc, will come through more in the next stage.
Refined Sketch
Here's where the piece really starts to take shape! I'll have sketched out almost everything here, so if you see any details missing like piercings, someone's lacking fur somewhere you want to see them fluffier, the expression isn't quite right and you'd like some little tweaks to it, etc, now's the best time to get those corrections done. This stage translates usually pretty faithfully over to the linework, as close as I can reasonably get it! Now is the last time to really make any changes to posture or proportions.
Linework
Once we get to the lines, if there's any bits I think will be hard to see as they're colored, I'll usually provide an alt with them a bolder color or black for easier visibility, but here I just stuck with the colors that would be in the final - You can see it some in the outline of some fire in the bottom right, in some colored eyelashes, and the gold wiring on the characters a little to the right of center. This is the best time to double check for any small details that might have slipped through the cracks in the sketch stage!
Flat Colors
With the lines down, the flats go up! Mainly, this check-in is to make sure I've color picked from your references correctly, or in the case of making references, that the colors have come together the way you like. If you see any coloring errors (such as having picked wrong on the eyes, missed a segment in striping, etc) this is the time to let me know so I can fix it! Very minor line edits might be applicable here, if something small was missed in the prior stage.
Line Colors
For pictures with no shading, this is where the process finishes up! Once you've approved the flats, I'll go back and color in some of the linework to pretty it up and add a few finishing touches (usually, this is where the eyes get some shine added to them, for example, or some motion lines are added for ongoing actions, etc) and I'll send it back to you as a finished piece! Yippee!
Shaded, Finished
If the piece you're getting calls for shading, THIS is where the process ends! The lines are colored in, the shading is added, the final touches are thrown together, and it'll be sent your way to make sure I didn't miss anything in those last details! Once we're here, you're welcome to share the piece in your galleries so long as you credit me, and I may ask if it's alright if I post it to mine to share! You are more than welcome to ask I keep a posted piece anonymous, or not post it at all, though, no trouble at all! And if I don't ask to post it, it's not that I dislike the piece at all, either, sometimes I just forget or I'm leaving it to you!
If you have any questions at all about the process or would like to see some more examples of a sketch compared to the finished work, etc, please don't hesitate to contact me! I'll usually be able to find a couple of my WIPs to share some of the progression so you'll have a better idea of what to expect from a finished piece compared to the early work.