Before I get to any wet on wet background bleeds , I want to lay down some of the characters or focus points whose color pallettes I can't or don't want to change to fit the background. In this case Cutie will have her natural pelt colors, and she is the one point of true-to-reference illustration on the page, so I paint her first. Everything else will grow out from and compliment her.
Next I lay down the color work for Nina. My daughter Nathalie wanted to chose the colors she was wearing so once again this character had to be painted early so I could blend the background around her and not vice versa. Nina favors dark pastels of earthy shades such as plum and olive, so that was what I used, although somewhat frivolously interpeted. Both parents have dark hair, which will be painted much later, as dark covers light.
The last of the pre-wash characters is Michael, the Gnomish doctor. Nathalie wanted him in his favored light blue, and I added an aqua green tinge to separate him from the pale cobalt and cerulean I am planning for Lia. Th epatch reads MOJICA MOJO. The family name is Mojica (pronounced Mo-HEEK-a
Lia will be painted last as her wings are going to be translucent and I can adjust the hue of her clothing and wings to best stand out from or blend in with the background when all the other color has been laid down. She also has a fair amount of pale skin to render, and I don't want to smudge or dirty that, so again, it will be the last detail to paint, and will be the least overworked area of paint.