This is a character of mine named Crow. The shading and coloring process on him is different from what I normally do because I wanted to try out Ambient Occlusion. This was my first attempt so hopefully I will improve as I practice more! Unfortunately there are very few digital painting tutorials that really go into the process ( most of the in depth tutorials I've come across required being bought ). 

I start out with a rough idea and cleaned it up into this sketch. Afterwards I adjusted the resolution and went into working on the AO!

This was the basic Ambient Occlusion. There was some tweaking and darkening here and there once the colors were added. Since this was my first try I didn't think to document the whole process. We'll see what my next try brings around!