Lets start by creating a new canvas! In Photoshop go to: FILE >NEW. That should pop up a little window that looks like the image to your left. Make sure all your info is the same as mine

This is your toolbar. You don't need to know all of them. I'll explain to you along the way only the ones we are going to use. By the way, The instructions are by color. Red text goes with red marks I make on the image and orange text goes with orange marks and so on. First click on the foreground color and pic a dark shade of purple. next go to the fill tool (I circled it in orange) and click that anywhere on your canvas

Your canvas should look something like this.

Now go to your LAYERS window. Create a new layer by clicking the icon I circled in red. Double click where it says Layer 1 and rename it body because that's where Kirby's body is going to be.

Go back to your toolbar. Pick the marquee tool. If it's on the retangular marquee just click and hold the mouse button until you are able to switch over to the Elliptical marquee tool.

Make sure you are on the body layer and not the purple background layer. With the Elliptical marquee tool selected, click, hold and drag on the upper-left part of the canvas to the lower-right part while holding shift to constrain the shape to a perfect circle. Release the mouse button when you are satisfied with the size. Pick a pinkish color for the foreground and then press Alt + Delete to fill the circle. Your image should now look somewhat like the one to the left. Press Control D (Ctrl) to deselect the marquee

Go back to your toolbar. Select the Paintbrush tool pick a size 19 hard edge brush and make sure all the settings I circled in orange are all the same. Creat a new layer and name it hands and feet. The new layer is probably sitting on top of the body layer, so what you want to do is click, hold and drag the hands and feet layer under the body layer. Do that in the layers window panel. Now, on the hands and feet layer paint his shoes and hands according to the picture to the left. It doesn't have to be perfect. You can fix it later.

Select the Burn tool (the hand pinch icon). Note: if there is a lollipop icon (that's the Dodge tool) just click and hold on that icon until you are given the option to select the Burn tool. Pick a size 100 soft brush. Make sure the Range is set to Midtones and Exposure is around 27%. Now on the body layer use the Burn tool to shade the circle along the edge.Press and hold while making circles around his body. Don't let go of the button because you'll apply another layer of shading that will make it darker. Anyway, after the edge is evenly shaded, you can then darken his body a little more depending on the light source. Which in this case is coming from the upper-left. Therefore you should shade a bit more under him and to his right. Now go over to his hands and feet layer and do the same for his hands. You can use a smaller brush if you want. For his feet you'll have to change the Range from Midtones to Highlights before you start shading it. I should have told you this before we started shading, but here's what you should do if you didn't like the way your hands and feet looked when you painted it. Go to that layer and using the eraser tool set to a hard edge brush size of about 9. Click in one spot and hold shift and click in a new spot. That will create a perfectly straight erace from the first point to the second point. Use that technique to carve and shape the hands and feet until they look the way you want them to. Well, since I forgot to do this myself I just went ahead and did it now.

Compare for yourself the difference between his hands and feet before and after I used the eracer to carve and reshape them

Okay, create a new layer and name it Eyes and Mouth. Make sure it's on the top of all the other layers. Create his eyes the same way you did his body, only don't hold the shift key. Pick the color black for the foreground color. press Alt + delete to fill the selection. Don't deselect the marquee you just created for the eye just yet though. Instead click in the center of that oval and drag it to the right. Press Alt + Delete again to fill it. Now press Ctrl D to deselect. On the same layer (or you can create a new one), do the same for the white ovals in his eyes. For his mouth use a hard edge paintbrush size 9 and paint in his mouth with a redish color. Zoom in if you have to, it's easier to control the brush with the mouse if you zoom in.

Create a new layer and name it "blue", for his eyes. Zoom in and use the same technique we used for the eracer tools but istead use it with the paintbrush tool with a hard edge brush size of 3. Now if you forgot the technique, I'll explain it again. It's like connect the dots. You click on a point and holding the shift key you click another point to create a straight line from one point to the other. Use this to create the blue cresent shape in Kirby's lower eye. After that just paint it solid and it should be good. Now use the marquee tool to fence in that cresent shape and press Ctrl C to copy followed by Ctrl V to paste. Now move the pasted copy (which should be right on top of the original) to the other eye and you should be done with that. Go back to the body layer and add the spots on his cheek with the burn tool. Range should be Midtones. Go to the layer with the mouth and using the burn tool with a soft brush size of about 25, shade his mouth. Remember to change the Range to Highlights. Now, go to the background layer and add some shading underneath Kirby and you're all done. So, that was easy, right? Hope that helps you get into digital painting!