I just wanted to share my approach to digital painting. I have tried many different approaches over the years and find this one works for me .
I initially create a graphite drawing on vellum drawing paper, photograph it and then take the digital file into AP. Using the default blending tools, I blend the previously shaded drawing into a nicely sculpted form ready for the application of colour using gradient maps.
Here is a sample of the final stage of the grayscale and its readiness for colour. Comments welcomed.