Here is a walkthrough of how I went about painting the portrait of my cat. Now this isn't a tutorial mind you - meaning it is not ok by me to copy this picture. Pick apart the steps, take what you will from it... my goal here is that somebody might be able to find something helpful in all this, not to have everyone copy my painting. *grin* :D

NOTE: The image is © Katherine Dinger. I post the walkthroughs for general reference to give other people a glimpse into how I work, they are NOT here for you to copy! Thank you.

A very rough, hideous sketch to start things out...	I've gone through and blocked in general colors here. Obviously I'm still working messy and loose at this point :D	Started working on the eyes right off... one of my favorite things to paint.
Starting to build up a little more detail, individual hairs and such. I've also started to add some cooler colors into the image.	Painted in the runes. Also used some loose scribbly strokes to lengthen the hair on the face.	Working in more details with the fur.
Still expanding on the fur...	Filled out the form of the head a little better here. Starting to take shape at this point :)	Worked on the ears and the headpiece. I also deepened the blue-green colors at the bottom of the image.

Decided the open mouth looked stupid. *grin* Polished things up, applied finished changes and called it done. Weee!