I figured I would chuck up my commission process, since I finally got one as part of a declaration that I was doing commissions, and not just something a friend asked for.

A gentleman by the name of Midaychi asked me to do a fullbody piece of his character of the same name. Midaychi is a Southern Sergal, a race made up by Mick Trancy. He was extremely helpful in providing me with references, so I had plenty of good source material to draw upon for this piece. I usually do research for visual refs anyhow for this kind of thing; Google Image Search is my copilot. He also provided a character biography, which I LOVE to have; it means I can try and imbue a little personality into my work.

First I did two pages of thumbnails, to get the hang of how Sergals were constructed and determine what I would have the character wearing. I opted to leave out much in the way of clothing, in favor of making the lines of the body clearer.

As you can see I had an idea for a headwrap, but decided it would look better framing his neck. Next I did a few thumbnails to determine what pose I would use in my final draft. After I'd found one I was happy with, I sent it to Midaychi to confirm that this was what he wanted.
Once he'd given his approval, he made the payment and I began working on the final draft. This step was a good formality I'd read about; this way HE knows that I am, in fact, working on his piece, and I know that I'm not going to get burned in terms of payment. Better business and everyone happy on all sides. I won't be able to do this on a sketch piece, since, obviously, the piece itself is a bit sketchy, but that's a bridge I'll cross when I come to it.
After that I pulled out the Bristol board, laid down my pencils, and inked the lines. I'm paranoid, so I scanned the lines in case I blew it during shading.
Then I started in with the inkwash. Lately if I ink I'm using brushes; I used to use dip pens, but the start-stop-refill-repeat process gets annoying quickly. They're still good for very fine lines, though. Here's the final product, a shaded fullbody ink piece, as ordered.
Et voila! Midaychi loved it, and I gave him files of all the work I had put into the piece; it costs me nothing more to do and gives him more flexibility in what he can do with his commission. He says that he'll probably try to get someone to color the un-shaded lines in the future. This was a real pleasure to work on and I'm hoping I get to do it again soon.