First I started out out with a simple background, I just made two different gradients to make a nice soothing look and feel.



Then I layed down a basic sketch of a dragonfly using the paint brush tool, in a solid black (#000000) with a medium width brush (5-12 pixel width). You can choose to use a reference image if you choose. I chose to for this sketch, anything works really.



You don’t have to be one hundred perfect accurate with this sketch, because if you use this style of painting, you will be coloring over the sketched lines.
Next I take a large brush and use the eye dropper to select colors from the reference image I chose to use. If your not using a reference, guess what colors would work well with your painting.



With the selected colors I lay down some basic layered colors that make the sketch pop out a little more. You don’t have to be very accurate with your brush strokes when you do this, but the more detail the better the outcome will be.



A choice you can make about your sketch is to either have the sketch layer above or below the painted layers. If you have it above, set the layer to multiply to make the coloring of the image pop more.
For the last layer get a small thick brush and go over very defined areas to get more detail. You should build up colors from the base layers so that small gradients start to appear on the sketch. This is detail refinement and it leads to a better end product with more time spent doing this.
After this step you can either hide, or allow the sketched lines to show through the “paint”. You should go with whatever you think looks better, since YOU’RE THE ARTIST!

TIPS:
Don’t be afraid to use multiple layers, just make sure to label them so you don’t get confused.
Brushes of different sizes, shape, and oppacities all vary the outcome of what your trying to accomplish, so playing around can really bring out the best in your painting.

Good Luck and Happy Painting!