I still need to do my sketching with pencil and paper, but the coloring goes much much faster now and maintains the look of the original sketch almost perfectly every time. (provided I had a good sketch to begin with). The other thing that's great about this method is that I have a choice halfway through to either be done, and be satisfied with a black and white drawing, or I can continue with overlaying the colors and having a finished colored piece.
Here's a WIP shot of something I started today (about 2 hours ago)
Also trying to do more exciting subjects and composition. Here's SEG (Space Explorer Girl) in action, shooting some tentacles or some nonsense. So this piece will hopefully feature an interesting comp, using a different perspective and some cropping, more dynamic lighting with higher contrast, and maybe some nice colors, if I decide to color it. (I probably will).
The amount of background detail I include will depend on my patience and how the figure and beast turn out. It may or may not need a lot of detail.
Patience is another thing I have to work on. It is usually limited and I tend to be "done" with drawings before I am actually satisfied them. Then I feel crappy and go "bleehhh, I'm a bad artist, boohoo..." So I need to stop doing that.
I think I have to shorten that arm....
