Alice in Wonderland process

So just to upload and show you guys what I am working at. This is for a dutch magazine(BoekieBoekie) contest. We have to illustrate poems inspired by the story of Alice in Wonderland. You guys have seen some old stuff. My first try was with gouache, though I did love that, I am kind of slow at it. It took me a week. Ahaha.... >.>

This was the gouache tryout. I'm not such a big fan of everything except the animals XD ha.

Hence, Photoshop!
I thought maybe it would be fun to give a little insight in my process

I started out with a fiveminute doodle. Trying to come up with several before I start sketching properly.

The final sketch

I fill it in with a basecolour. By mixing up colors with the background, I get a solid image with a nice balance in colors,

Silhouette check! This tells me whether the shapee of the illustration is as dynamic as I want it. 

annnnnd painting!! Using some references loosely

And this is 5 hours later. Lawl. Still slow, but less messy!