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In this walkthrough, I would like to share with you my process for creating my original character portrait, “Forever”. I’m using Photoshop CS4, but the methods used here can be adapted to other painting programs as well. I hope that you may find it useful! 
I always begin my artworks with a sketch- be it digital or traditional media. In this case, I start by opening a scan of a sketch I drew of a character in my sketchbook into Photoshop. I also create a new document with the dimensions set that I would like for my final, completed image to have. In this case, the dimensions are set somewhere around 3400 x 5900 at 300dpi. I duplicate my sketch layer to my newly created canvas. The sketch now is quite small compared to the canvas area, so I use CTRL+T or Edit > Free Transform to resize the sketch to fill up the canvas. I duplicate the sketch layer and set its layer mode to Multiply.
Now that I have my sketch layer set up, I move on to painting in grayscale. To do this, I make a new, normal layer underneath the Multiplied sketch. I pick an almost black, a medium gray, and a light gray as my basic tones to work with. I always start painting with the mid-tones first, so I use the medium gray and fill the entire canvas with it as my base.
I’ve chosen a simple, overhead light source, so working with shadows next, I paint them in accordingly with a hard round brush. The sides of the face, under the eyes, the nose, the lips- this is where the majority of the shadows are. It sometimes helps to set up a similar light source near a mirror and notice where the highlights and shadows fall on your own face. At this stage, I’m not very particular about my brush strokes, only the form, so no worries if it looks messy. After painting in the basic shadows, I use the light gray to block in some highlights, especially on the forehead, cheeks, nose, and chin where the light would be most concentrated.
Since the basic form is taking shape, I make a new layer on top of the Multiply sketch layer and leave its blending mode as normal. I take some time here to detail the form a little more before moving on to coloring by adding some wrinkles around the eyes, between the eyebrows, adding the neck and chest, etc.
 
Now that the basis for the character is completed, it’s time to move on to the coloring part. I merge all of the layers together, and create a new layer on top and set its blending mode to Color. I pick out some simple flesh tones for the skin- I stick with more saturated colors for the shadows and lighter, less saturated colors for highlights. Using a soft, round airbrush, I go over the entire character to colorize. I also block in some pink on his lips. I want a dark color for the background. So, I make a new layer and set it to Multiply. Using a random color of blue, I go over the entire background. The dark background makes the character stand out more since there’s so much highlight focused on his face.
The basic form and color is now complete- and the detailing begins! I want the skin to look much textured, on a new layer; I go over the exposed parts of the face with a spackled brush using a slightly lighter skin color than the mid-tone. Afterwards, I do the same with a darker color. I repeat the process until I’m satisfied with the results, which should resemble skin pores.
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