How it started:

I was really bored and doodled this. Obviously I came to regret the background. Also note that I was/am still recovering from tendonitis during this process. For most of the time working on this, I could only do about an hour or two a day, every other day.

Here's my color test and before I started working on the proportions and form. I wanted everybody to kind of share a little bit of each other's colors.

I finally got to try out that "put everything in boxes, and that's your perspective" trick!

And then, poof! characters. I worked on the backgrounds after this, and getting everyone in vague proportion to everyone else.

But also, very important. Sally Po's arm:

I wanted vague name recognition for all the stuff in the background. Like, if you know, you know. Also my handwriting is poop, so a lot of the hanzi are vaguely approximate scribbles.

Every bottle/item on those shelves was a night's work. I learned a lot about how the airbrush is really key to realism.

There are actually 2 thermos there. And that Lychee jelly bottle is almost entirely 'rendered' behind Quatre's head.

Moving on to the stuff on the table!

Look at that disgusting meat filling and how some of it is clinging to the sticks.

My lovely dumplings and beat up pan. I'm not a food artist, but I did my best!