Love Your Art! What's Your Shading Process / Any Tips? I Really Like How Vibrant It Is

Love your art! What's your shading process / any tips? I really like how vibrant it is

Thank you!! also sorry this is a long post

I usually start painting the character after I already have a background, super sketchy or with a placeholder (a photo usually), just so i know what colors to use

I fill the character with a color from the BG or a similar color and use the multiply blending mode

then i paint the lights on another layer with the "add glow" blending mode (i also pick the color depending on the bg).

I add another multiply layer for anything that needs to be darker, like stuff under the characters clothes

I paint a line with a saturated color between the lights and shadows, for example i added a bright red for the cape and light purple for their skin (? this is subsurface scattering, it doesnt happen on every surface but i like how it looks so i use it on everything lol.

Then i paint the lineart a similar color to each part of the character or you can paint it all red and use multiply

that's basically it

some tips (these are just things that work for me)

I think is better to paint the lights, not the shadows. it helps to see the shapes of the thing/character you're drawing better (its what i did with lambert ⬆️)

Draw backgrounds, i think it makes every drawing look more interesting and its easier to decide the lighting for the character, if you dont want to draw anything detailed you can paint something simple and blur it

i really recommend to start with a thumbnail, experiment with colors, perspective, composition, etc. before actually starting the drawing thumbnails of this post

this tip is something that everyone has heard before but use references, real life references like photographs for perspective and lighting, 3d models for anatomy and perspective, paintings to see how other artists stylize objects, bgs or characters. use references for everything

this tip is super important for me: check the values of your drawing, (lower the saturation, with the lineart hidden) if it isnt readable/ doesnt look good in black and white it most likely wont look good with colors (this depends on artstyle and personal preference tho)