lapinbeau from FA requested seeing the steps for "Best Friends," so here they are. :)
It's not really a tutorial, as it just shows the steps for this particular painting. I sort of do each painting a little differently.
But, maybe someone might find this useful. :)

I use Photoshop, but you can follow these steps for most of the commonly used programs (Sai, Gimp, Painter, etc.).

I tried to explain what I did in each step, I hope it makes some sense. xD

I'm also sorry for the jump between the barren trees and the leaves, as I didn't save the steps between those two. I tried to write it out, I hope it isn't too confusing.

The finished painting can be viewed here: https://www.weasyl.com/submission/401401/