I started with a white liquid primer, I do this on all clothed people/humanoid figures, armored figs I usually
 prime black. I then painted all of the 'inside' parts of the figure, the skin, the pants, the staff with a mid tone
 color, and worked my way out. The paints that I am using right now are the tube acrylics I use for regular
 picture painting. Not neccessarily from preference, but because I have a lot, and I don't have the money for jar paint right now. A lot of the brighter tube colors do have a nice transparency to them though, another
reason for going with a white prime coat. After each area dried, I went over them with a dark thinned paint
 wash of a similar tonal color: an orangeish-brown for the robes, burnt umber for the staff and flesh, dark blue
for the pants and belt pouch, black for the hair. Then I drybrushed highlights: a white-yellow for the robes,
  a white-brown for the boots, staff and flesh, An almost white brown for the fur, yellow-green for the pants and
  belt pouch. I did the metal peices last, its hard to tell from the pictures, but the medalions on the staff are
  all different metals: silver, bronze, copper. The metal is also washed with black, and the same color
drybrushed over.
It's taken me a long time to get to this level of painting (take a look at my earliest minis I've posted), and all
I can say is practice, practice, practice. The more you paint the better at it you will get, promise. Be relaxed while you paint, if you keep finding yourself thinking of other things that need to be done, either take care of them, of forget about them while you're painting. You almost want to reach a meditative state, where you focus on the miniature. Then the brush control for those small areas will come, and be patient. It's very
 hard to finish a mini in a day if any sort of wash technique is involved.