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The benevolent light of hell

I tend to do art in greyscale first with a color layer on top later. Focusing on value and color separately lets me paint more confidently and also allows me to play with color without needing to repaint anything.

As for my painting process, I like to use brushes that are more blocky than round, and that allow me to both blend and lay paint on without dragging the underpainting around too much. The program I use is Autodesk Sketchbook. Here is the brush and the settings I use for linework and rendering. Occasionally I'll change the blending mode to "synthetic paint" if I want more of an oil paint effect:

I tend to paint very mid-key, where I repeatedly add the highlights and shadows, then blend em out to more neutral values. I don't solidify the details (like the eyes or nostrils) until the whole of the form (like the eye sockets or nose) are in place. Working on the whole form at once before doing the details is the key to how I like to render. I also don't zoom in too close until the last touches, when I can finally sharpen things up until I'm satisfied. I'm often told my art has a really soft look to it, and this is why.

The most important part of my process is that I try to draw digitally the same way I do traditionally. There's a lot you can do digitally, but honing in on the process of markmaking, erasing, coloring, etc with a certain set of tools, certain sized brushes, and a certain canvas as you would irl can make the process look and feel much more organic and cohesive. I lean towards charcoal and oil paint irl, so my brush settings and overall process reflect that.

When I'm done, I like to put a unifying texture layer over the whole piece, which helps the digital paint look more organic. Usually I'll take a texture like paper, canvas, or a fine film grain from a site with royalty free images, like Unsplash. Then I'll play with the brightness, opacity, and layer setting until it looks good.

All that being said, this is a lot of info and it's just one way to do things. I'm very passionate about digital art since there's a lot I wish I knew earlier, but this is just how I like to paint. Still, maybe this will help someone.