From ink on paper to gradients on screen

I wonder if we are always aware of all the steps we take from an initial work/idea until the final result. Having in mind that the more complicated a piece of work is, the more steps and hours of work are required, I am going to show in this post all the steps from a sketch to a final appealing look of a simple word like Hi!.

It all starts with a sketch. The level of detail of it will, of course, have an influence on how many steps we will need to take until the final result. In this case, this was a rough sketch and needed some more adjustments.
 

 
Using the pen tool to build a first approach I already changed a bit the shape of the original draft,
 

 
Filled the outlines and hid the background image,
 

 
Did some character width adjustments,
 

 
Removed part of the H,
 

 
Inverted and slightly rotated the composition,
 

 
Extruded it,
 

 
Filled all the shapes with gradients,
 

 
And changed the background and added a shadow on it.
 

 
Here is an overview of the process.
 

 
Thanks!