How do we manually texture models?

[alexmach1]

i think i answered this before, but

grab the UV wireframe (shows which texture coord goes to which polygon)
make it a semi-transparent layer in photoshop/gimp
outline the polygons with solid colors
add details
add ambient occlusion if not stylized
done
below is a photoshop attempt at making an HD master chief texture for his halo 3 model. notice that the new texture stays in the white outlines of the polygons. ambient occlusion darkens a surface based on its distance from light if it were in shadows.

HD master chief example

in the end, when multiplied with a custom color, the model now looks like this (ignore the elite):

Spoiler

...unless you meant UV mapping, in which case IGNORE ME~