In particular how the photographer gets the skin to look so painterly

http://s017.radikal.ru/i435/1202/73/85dfd3ad4eaf.jpg

All regular d&b.

There's just some emphasis on the reds/magentas in the skin which you can play with by going to selective color > reds > then slide the cyan mini slider to your left and mess with the other ones in that section. it's also knowing how to properly emphasize shadows too. If you look up tutorials on how you can recognize light and shadow on things like traditional artists do with learning how to paint a ball against a light source with correct shadows you'll get a feel about how to paint with global d&b and adjust the shadows to your liking

I don't see anything extrordinary in the post work area of this very nicely done  image.