awesome thread, can learn a lot in here about using different techniques. anyway this is what i use to make a painting i think i will start from very first step:
Tracing paper for the intial sketch
Trace over that with clean lines, reverse it onto my Arches Water colour block cold press
i use a waterproof WHSmith Fine Marker to go over the traced images which is now on my block, with these i find i get very smooth lines, they don't bleed into the paper
i use a winsor & newton watercolour brush and start black shading with black PW liquid acrylic i found this is blacker than a lot of other stuff i have used and can get a nice blend, i dont get any shades of blues, but if anyone knows anything easier to use than this please let me know! i also keep a cup of water and an old cotton tshirt next to me when i paint so i dont end up over compensating the amount of water on my brush and over do it
when the black is all down i then use winsor & newton Indian ink (very vibrant) and a choice of Dr PH Martins for the colours, depending on what i am painting
i think that is more or less the process i take. sounds a lot easier than it is looking at it now