Although several different techniques for characterization exist, using a combination of their attributes helps achieve solid characterization. With the modeling technique, the writer chooses a current or historical person upon as a basis for a character. Joan of Arc, for example, could serve as a model for a character speaking to otherworldly beings or who has a righteous nature. Archetypes, another method, provide writers with natural alliances and enemies for their characters, such as the bad boy rebel or girl next door. Archetypes also induce a sense of familiarity with the readers.
Composite characterization combines models and archetypes, giving writers more flexibility and making it easier to modernize old models. A writer could modernize a model based on Joan of Arc by combining it with an archetype of a psychic. The deliberate design technique produces a perfect character for whatever task you've created. If your story needs a self-righteous, bigoted commander, you could make him those things and fit him right into place -- that's deliberate design.
Character change refers to a temporary, external change that occurs in response to an outside influence. Character growth is a permanent, usually internal change made deliberately by the character. An example of character growth would be the bad boy rebel having a revelation and becoming the marriageable man. An example of character change would be the bad boy rebel dressing differently, yet still having the same attitude.
A growth arc, or character arc, occurs when a character's personality makes a significant change or "growth." For instance, if a character has been trying to solve a problem with method A and does not succeed, the character moves on to method B. If method B works, the character will continue to use method B in the future. Like characterization, different types of arcs exist, and not all are positive. One type of growth -- the fall and redemption cycle -- tears down a character completely, only to let him crawl back to the top later.
Two key things matter when implementing characterization in your story: control and character freedom. Because the story and characters belong to you, you have the control. On occasion, however, characters might speak up and tell you something they'd rather do instead.