From concept to game model, part 1

I'm building a character in 3D at the moment; this is the concept for him. The steps are: (drawn) concept, a rough high-poly in Sculptris, finished high-poly in Zbrush, low-res model in 3DCoat, and doing textures in dDo!

This is the first step, the concept done in photoshop.

The steps are as follows:

1. Rough silhuelt

2. Colors on top, on another layer. Use clipping mask, "down" on the silhuet layer. 

3. Tones, by using adjustment layer Curves, and again clipping mask that "down" on the silhuet and color layer. Again just rough shadows. Now you have your general palette of color and tone, and can simply color-pick from that.

4. Paint! Just make a new layer, and paint on! 

The key to this method, is to keep clipping mask "down" to the silhuet layer as long as you can. Then you can always change the form of the character in 1 layer, and still keep lots of different adjustment layers. At some point, i tend to merge everything into a new layer, work in top of that again.