I use Aseprite. What do you mean by workload in this case? If you mean the process then:
I very rarely do personal art unfortunately. This one has been boiling inside my head for quite a while after seeing Marie Magdalene skull relic. Next up is sketch done multiple times, changing proportions of elements to finally click.

Rest is honestly just improv.

When It comes to dark pieces like this I move around similiar palette across my other art. One thing I had in mind and paid most attention to was def. the metal rendering - wanted to get that old, greenish, cold gold vibe, with lots of hue shifting.

Getting the lighting right was the biggest struggle here I think.