In the case of the portraits, I settle for a size between 48x48 and 64x64, so I can use them as avatars pretty much anywhere (50x50 for deviantart usually).

1. I pick a photographic reference

2. I do some quick lineart to get an idea of the composition

3. Start in greyscale, black, white, light grey and medium grey to block out shading

4. Concentrate on eyes, mouth then nose. These are crucial to capture expression and likeness.

5. I start refining clusters and adding intermediate shades. Clusters are like tetris or lego bricks to me: they must fit together and build form through their shape. My favourite shape is the 3px "L".

6. I look for a colour theme I like, and then switch to colour to see if it works.

7. If it works, it's done!

All along, I have the photo open in another window, which I check every couple of strokes. I also work between 600-800%, but I zoom out to 100% to get an overview and to see how the blending's going.

I've put my WIP animation in the OP.

I don't think I'd be the only one interested in hearing about your process for these beauties. Please!

Thank you very much! I spend a lot of time looking at 1x when working on a piece. I don't mind explaining my process if you're interested.
 

Pink and green are complementary! So it's not an entirely strange choice for an accent. I've abused it a lot personally, so I might be biased, but I like it here too.

Your work reads so incredibly well at 1x resolution, something which I've struggled with so far. I gotta find a way to avoid that single pixel more often. Kudos!

Second palette is nice but the original looks better. It was just the pink shade used in the eyes that i found confusing on a green based palette.

Thanks jal! Here's another palette:

You always make terrific liitle portraits. I do find that one pink color odd.