War of the Dogs

DISCLAIMER. This is just how I sketch. This is not an end-all YOU HAVE TO FUCKING DRAW THIS WAY command. I am very bad at what I do. That's why I'm in this little hole on the internet instead of making thousands of dollars with Marvel. Why am I doing this, you ask? Oh, I don't know. Boredom. Okay here we go!

STEP 1
Open a new file. I use Photoshop CS4, but most of this stuff is universal.
Size should be between 1500-3000 AT LEAST for either side, and DPI of at least 300 for an average drawing. I generally use brushes between 3 and 9 pixels wide.

STEP 2: SCRIBBLING

When I scribble I just try to get a feel for the pose and the movement and the angle. I'm not making this too amazing, since it's only a tutorial.
I use a seperate layer from the background, obviously, for ease.

STEP 3: BETTER-ER SCRIBBLING

Once you have the idea out, you'll want to lighten up your lines a bit and go over them with a different color just to hammer out the anatomy. For a pose from a higher angle like this, I try to focus on where the neck is, where the ears are located, where they connect to the neck, ect. Then of course you'll want to know where the ribcage is, the spine, ect. I want to have her look like she's looking up at something, (maybe yelling, I haven't decided yet) and so I have the camera pointing down and her body bent forward a little.

STEP 4: ACTUAL DRAWING

Next I make another layer, pick a different color, and go over my rough sketch with a guess of where the anatomy will be. I try to think of what sort of facial expression I'll be using, and also draw out the direction in which the hair flows. Now, at this point, I realize this drawing looks hideous. This is pretty normal for me, because of how loosely I work in steps 2 and 3. So let's flip it around and figure out what the fuck is going on. You'll want to go to image, image rotation, flip canvas horizontally.

STEP 5: MIRROR MAGIC

Well, I don't need the original scribbles anymore, so I deleted that layer. Here I've redlined the parts I perceive to be in need of improvement. The face is too wide and wrongly-positioned for this angle, and her hips should be smaller since we're looking down. And her arm feels a bit stiff over there. You can either redraw it, or fuck around with the transform tool like a lazy person, which is what I do with most parts, if I can.

STEP 6: NOT QUITE SO SHITTY

Okay now you can flip it back around once everything seems to look better, and start throwing some clothes on her and what not. I just tend to draw people naked first because clothing kind of gets in the way sometimes. Like always, lighten sketchies, and pick another color.

STEP 7: GETTING DRESSED

Yay, decency. Now your roommates won't be looking over your shoulder and accusing you of drawing porn! Usually at this point I just clean up whatever shitty sketchiness I have into something easier to follow by going over the sketch one more time. Of course, at this point, my sketch usually still is a mess of lines gone awry, but I'm trying to keep it neat for you guys, so just bear with me and do a final sketch.
At the end, this is what I have.

Next tutorial I'll discuss inking (briefly)