letsee.... I use both photoshop 7.0 and photoshop CS4. Why both? Because I hate the layout in CS photoshops XD I just find a lot of the stuff they put in for convenience sake annoying as heck, and since I haven't figured out how to turn it off, I use photoshop 7 for the heavy drawing work and CS4 for the extra effects like filtering and such, because of course the newer program has more available in that respect.

I use a lot of different programs because each one has its strengths and weaknesses, and using different programs makes up for others' weaknesses.

Generally photoshop is for sketching, I can color in this program, and it is possible to create great digital paintings, however, I find this to be easier to do in other programs like paint tool Sai. I love paint tool sai for coloring because you can blend and just do more with the colors than you can in photohsop simply because this program is specifically geared towards painting, while photoshop is more geared towards editing and fixing photos. However, photoshop is much better for adding filters, textures, and resizing images, so I generally switch between the two programs when coloring- so that i can touch up my drawing as I work.

I suppose it should have been mentioned before my speel on coloring, but I use a program called manga studio EX 4.0 for inking my drawings and creating the final lineart. While drawing with a tablet that has pressure sensitivity, you can create thick and thin lines, but this program has many different pen nibs that will actually correct your lines- automatically making them thick and thin when needed. This gives your inked drawings a professional looking effect while cutting the amount of work you have to do in half.

manga studio EX 4.0 is also a comic making program, so you can choose from over 3000 tones to add to your drawings, you can create panels with a flick of the mouse, and also color pictures.

However, the layout of this program is very confusing, and as I just recently got it, I've yet to actually color anything, so I can't tell you the pros and cons of coloring. So far however, the program seems truly amazing in the areas I have experimented in.

I use specific brushes in paint tool sai- like the water color brush for example- for a nice paintbrush effect. You can use soft/fuzzy brushes in photoshop as well, however, as I mentioned above, I feel that sai is better for coloring as the brushes and color automatically dilute and blend, providing a more realistic effect.

For every new color, I create a new layer and paint over the ones below- with paint tool sai's automatic blending effect colors get a nice painted look, for photoshop, you'd have to mess with the opacities of brushes.

there's a crapload of other stuff I do too, but I won't get off onto a crazy rant about it.

I also color traditionally- coloring traditionally can create quite a traditional effect XD

I like using prismacolored pencils, chalk pastels, charcoal, whiteout, copics markers.... pretty much whatever I've got lying around. Digital work has specific tools set for you to use, but with real life drawings you can use anything to create the desired effect- the only real limit is your imagination.