Princess Original Characher painting process

Hello guys! after receiving some very useful tips from here after I posted my last digital painting, I decided to apply those tips and make this last artwork of one of my Original Characters. I wanted to show my princess in a moment of peace and loneliness inside of a room with some kind of pool where she likes to play with magic lotus-like flowers. This is the painting process I used for the making of the piece:

The first thing I've been told is to make a lineart and work on a good composition. I decided to show the girl in a kneeling position, and using the rule of thirds I placed her head in the bottom left focal point, since her face (and especially the crown) will be her main characteristics

After a first sketck/lineartI begin to place the values. at first I wanted the source of light to be directed to her left, but then later (as I'll show) I decided to place the light behind her (i adjusted them in the next steps)

Now it's time to put some base colors. I tried using Gradient Maps, but it was a bit too mechanical and disorienting, so I decided to set my brush on "color" mode and paint on the values

From there I began smoothing the shadows and add some additional colors to make the character more interesting. I focused especially on the hair and the dress! I added the platform she is standing on, so it'll help me for the next step

In order to get the color on the character right, I made the color palette for the background and painted it. That way I had clear the mood I wanted to put on the scene and I was able to further improve the colors and shadows. in this stepI started also painting the feet which were not in the sketch

Now that I have definetely decided that the source of light is behing the character I had to make her face darker and add a glowy effect on her golden/orange-ish eyes. I've also adjusted her back so she gives the idea of a more "puny" body, and i've added more details to the feet.

The reason I put a slightly white light on her face is because it's from the magic spirit that comes from the floating flower, which is moving upwards close to her. I've added also some reflection to make the viewer understand it's actually water.

Finally I've added some final touches like glow effects on the spirit and a layer of light on the right, in order to make more contrast between the face and the rest of the body

I hope you like it! maybe I'll add some more little details, or maybe make the background more interesting. I hope you find this painting process somehow useful!

Never played that game. Though I admit she is quite similar xd