In this paper, the characteristic variational multiscale (C-VMS) method is proposed for solving two-dimensional (2D) convection-dominated convection-diffusion-reaction problems. The scheme is combined the method of characteristics with the variational multiscale (VMS) method to create the C-VMS procedures. The stability analysis and error estimate of the C-VMS method are obtained. The scheme not only realizes the purpose of lowering the time-truncation error, using larger time step for solving the convection-dominated convection-diffusion-reaction problems, but also keeps the favorable stability and high precision. Finally, numerical experiments in 2D and 3D cases are presented to illustrate the availability and efficiency of the scheme. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.