Process for red rover/ firewall piece:
2. since I really liked certain parts of the rough, I just traced those parts on new paper as I worked out a more finalized sketch.
3. finished figuring out the details like lighting and how to manage the space under the entwined arms.
4. after scanning that in, I made a colour rough in photoshop. turns out having this step done helped me later when I wanted to experiment with different sky colours, who would've thought!
5. Jody made the awesome suggestion of making the sky golden. I think it looks wayyyy better! To get that fire to really glow I kept it as white as possible till the very end when I dashed some yellow/orange on it.
7. the very final! did some sanding touches to the sky and foreground, and brought in some slight "highlights" in the shadowy area on their backs.