In this case I am making the art for a castle themed slot game I started with a UI template and reference images I can use it to give me and idea of the subject matter, shape characteristics, and color theme.
Working with a small team, I normally skip the black and white drawings and block in the colors with textured brushes to get as close to a finished feel as soon as possible. This makes it easy for the team to see the direction I'm going.
If the team likes the direction, I next spend time to fix perspective, lighting, and do the final polish. To make this part go fast as possible I use every trick in the book, icluding stamp tool, liquify, and a lot of layers for detail and value correction.
I did the tiles separately which have their own separate but similar process. I find it very to helpful place them over the background to make sure that the UI and tiles are the main focus. Once everything is looking good, it is ready to be cut apart sent to Unity for animations and extra VFX.
I try to block in the characters with fast colors, but sometimes the team wants to see a different direction and the end result can turn out completely different from the start.
Sometimes the original sketch is spot on and only needs a quick clean-up for the final version. I try experimental techniques to speed up workflow; in this case I used the oil paint filter to smooth the color-blocked character out, and then all it needed was quick highlights and detail work and it was finished.
