Just. A thing on how I did the portrait from the previous chapter

first I lay down a basic b&w sketch in the pencil tool, not too neat but not all over the place either

I lock transparency on the sketch and fill it in maroon, then lay down base colors on a later below the sketch

On a new layer, I fill the entire layer with white and then shade in grey on the white so that it blends in

I put a new clipping layer over the shading and set it so soft light/overlay, then I fill it (the new clipping layer) in with a warmer shading tone

I merge the soft light layer and the shading layer, set the merged layer to multiply, then merge it with the base colors after a bit of cleanup

Repeat process for the hair

I take mind to keep things clean throughout all of it

I add a background, some highlights, and continue refining the shading on a single base layer- this is where I decided to include some backlighting, hence the beginnings of a highlight underneath him and along his hair

I refine the background and highlights, merge some of the sketch with the colors where appropriate, and just refine in general

I put every layer in a single folder, then, over that folder, make some overlays (I've got another tutorial on that in a previous chapter) and finish up with rendering and after effects

And bam woot woot it's done with a signal filter n stuff

To close this out here's a. Comparison of a portrait from a few months again to now!