Illustration process - the country house

About a month ago my mom requested me an illustration for her 52nd birthday. 

She didn't request anything specific, so I had the pleasure to do pretty much whatever I wanted. 
After a quick brainstorming and mind mapping, I had my concept: an illustration about the country house she grew up in. With a twist, of course:)

Well, drawing a building is fairly difficult for me so the first thing I did was gathering some reference. 
I went onto Google maps and got the photos of the building with the street maps. Thank god for stalking technology!:)
Here the photos 

These were a great reference, since I could see exactly how the building is structured and all sorts of details, which is something I couldn't have done just drawing from memory. 

(Btw, looking attentively at these photos made me figured out things about this building I had never ever noticed in all my life. That's one of the best part of being an illustrator... you have to look!)

Anyway, from here I've started to produce the first rough sketches

A bit less rough...

The final line work

And the finished piece.

Finally, I got it printed. I used photographic paper instead of art paper just because it's more resistant and easier to pack in a tube and send on the other side of the world. 

She received it. She liked it. Mission accomplished!