Good start guys! Hopefully I'll be participating in this one as well. Organic modeling was always my strongest point, hu ha ha!
davdud101, figure out the textures thing? Check view->preferences to make sure they're enabled. As for the lighting effect, you'll probably have to use trans maps to get it to look right.
rellik420: Good start on the head. Looks like you're wanting to put a bit of detail into it, so good luck! Unless you want him to be cartoony, I suggest researching the types of textures and materials for him. A more subtle diffuse texture with less contrasts, mixed with a strong bump map would help give him more realism with those scales.
Johnar, he's got an interesting look to him. When subdivision modeling, you'll want to have more details and divisions in the cage mesh to make it easier to texture in the future. It'll be hard to uvmap him without warping otherwise, unless you convert it to mesh first. Keep at it!
Hihosilver: You better see what you can do. I haven't seen anything new from you in ages (look who's talking)