I was asked for a few more work in progress pictures, so in this post I can show a simple breakdown of some sketching and painting for the Pathfinder Cleric with falcon. You can see the original post 
here, and see the final product from Paizo Publishing 
here
I use a funny animators style build up for my sketches, layering over 'cel' sheets and refining until it looks presentable :) 
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| rough ideas, lines | 
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| making sure i get all the equipment and details | 
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| few mods and proportion fixes etc | 
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| cleaned up line work - for delivery! | 
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| basic 'wash' of colours | 
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| ta da! |