I admit, I did use alot of HD references and tutorials to help me draw this, including the ribbon, and wings and letters. I didn't add the SEGA logo to the sprite…I don't know why…
I hand-drawn Sonic from the original sprite on my Sonic Mega Collection game and revamped and outlined him digitally using Paint Tool Sai's Ink pen tool, as well as overlay/luminosity layers with airbrushing tools for smooth lighting and shading, and Brush tool for cell-shading. I shall provide steps on how I did it when I get to it.
In total this took me an entire day to finish, including some procrastinations, because I had to make sure everything was an exactly symetrical, not that it had to be perfect…I just symetry, cause it keeps the whole image "in place" so it's too loppy or distorted etc.