The first image is the approved sketch! With a more wolf-ish snout.
The second image was the first pass, that was reworked into the first one.
The third image is the flat color image, to both serve as a check to make sure I got the markings right before shading, but also for the commissioner to give future artists so they can more easily see the colors and markings.
And finally, the fourth image is what I made before I began painting. The soft shadowing gives me a "scaffolding" of sorts to work off of. It helps make the color palette and lighting way more consistent since I get it outlined early on.