Hey there! Good foundation — I really like the character so far! I’d recommend two things: 1. Keep a black-and-white adjustment layer that you can toggle on and off to check your values while painting, or use the Photoshop shortcut (Ctrl + Y) to view the image in grayscale values. 2. Try to avoid painting with random brush strokes before properly establishing the light and shadow. It’s usually much better to begin by blocking in the graphic shadow shapes first (similar to the Asaro example at the top). Painting this way, starting with clear graphic shapes, will save you a lot of time and make the process feel much smoother overall. From there, you can gradually add bounce light, refine hard and soft edges, paint midtones, and so on. Painting without first establishing the light direction and the major light/shadow shapes tends to make the process much more complicated. Hope this helps!
