ok, this is digital paint, the same as oil paint. when you use a wacom digital tablet, it still takes almost as long to do a painting, and there is no tracing or overlays, its frustrating and rewarding, and i had to learn how to do it. this was done with corel painter 8. some others i use painting with the plain brush in just photoshop.
this from scratch is a demon based on a character from my friend notos
http://www.deviantart.com/view/10643016/
this is one is a portrait of my buddy Ivars from san diego
http://www.deviantart.com/view/10887380/
and this is my character bartol
http://www.deviantart.com/view/10614304/