Personally, I never really use blending modes until maybe a little bit at the end. I mainly would use layer masks on groups or clip layers/groups to certain layers. I think what really helped me was doing everyone on one layer or getting into the habit of merging everything and rendering on top. In industry, a lot of the time, I'm drawing directly over someone's png and there are no layers, so doing that has helped me get comfortable with painting directly over stuff. Then you can slowly start adding in more and more complexity to the workflow. | Artwod Feedback