if I was evil, would i do this?

rough grayscale -> 2. paint over and render (primorarily focused on form, i use light and shadow as my guide to making things look more dimensional

I read through James Gurney's book Color and Light as my general go-to for understanding how light works. Ian Roberts video shows how to effectively use it to create form, as well as Marco Buccis video on merging shapes for symplifying and making things a whole lot easier once you understand how light works. ((I'm mentioning these bc theres no short cut around this you just have to study a lot LOL find the educational videos that could resonate and teach you something and put in the effort to apply it to your paintings))

-> 3. next up, coloring, i usually use the overlay mode for it but i found vivid lighting to be pretty nice for more vibrant colors as well.

-> 4. color variantion via summoning demons

I dont have a screenshot for my previous art so im just gonna use another one to demonstrate what im talking about, basically, pretty much in any art program there is color adjustment curve (you may have to pay for it if your using an app like ibis paint) It gives you a nice control over your values and colors and i reccomend playing with it a few times with your art to see how it works. But here, im using it to go crazy with the colors and then lowering the opacity to create the effect. This video teaches a similar technique to what i use, but with gradient maps.

-> 5. annddd once thats done i clean up and fix some things and add some texture + effects

if you're wondering how i color with base color ...

color -> shadow with multiply -> overlay mode for subsurface scarttering, reflective lighting -> render with the focus on making those more visible (make the colors stronger via saturation or have more contrasting values) -> texture

This is a LOT more simpler to understand than my main way of coloring but i find the results pretty limiting as a setback (and way less freedom to what i could've done if i had did it with grayscale). So i use it for simpler character drawings whenever i dont feel like working on fully fledge paintings.