I had a friend of mine ask what steps I generally use for a good amount of my pics, so I decided to make a really rudimentary tutorial kind of thing?

It's pretty vague but I'm always happy to answer questions about what I do or whatever, but here's the general idea.

1. Sketch! Really rough, at first, but I usually refine it once or twice to make sure I know what I'm doing.

2. Lines. I try to keep my lines fairly loose so I don't lose any of the liveliness of the original sketch, yknow?

3. Base colors! This is pretty straightforward, but oftentimes I add subtle gradients to make the colors a bit more interesting. This kitty here has a bright, pinkish gradient coming from the center of his face.

4. Shading. I use a multiply layer above it with a range of whatever colors I feel are most fitting. Here I used grays. I also blurred them very slightly.
In this step I also add any effects; eye shines, white from the background, or anything else I think will add to the image.

Ya feel me? I hope you do.
Edit: Also I don't think I use any specifically crazy brushes but if you use sai and you'd like to see my settings, check these out: click!
I change them a little from time to time but this is pretty much all I use.
Sketch, Inking, and Blending are my most used!