I decided to work on a personal project, because I didn't do so in quite a while. The challenge I put myself up to, is to paint a picture in an art style I really like and try to figure out what makes this style special and how I can apply it to my own art.
Until now I managed to create my line art as well as establish the base colors for my piece. Since a couple of months this is my favourite way to work. Do the sketches, concepts, etc. Those can be just lines, or with flat colors or also already shaded. Doesn't really matter. Then get the line art down. And afterwards establish the base colors. Which I then use as a base to get my shadows and highlights on. That way all the shapes are already separated and it's easy to work from there.
Oh and this was also an exercise to see how far I can get from imagination. I only looked at reference for the torso and later on photographed my own hands for reference as well.