doraymiro (commissions open!)

Instead of blending I often use a brush with soft textured end, often dotted like this, to achieve a dispersion effect I would need for skin shine like this while also maintaining skin texture.

Then when playing around with soft and hard transfers. Harder textured transfers would be used on where plane separation would be more apparent and where I would like more focus on while a softer one would be used somewhere where I don't want the viewers eye to wander and where the separation is less drastic.

Then when I am doing added effects to add on to the feel of the piece I once again play around with soft and hard transitions. These brushes are usually very specific meant and only really applicable in situations like this. No "traditional rendering" is done with them. Here I used a slightly textured smudge tool on the soft fade outs.

Another version of going about transitions but applied to hair. Using the spaces in the rake brush I do transition from hair to skin without drawing a harsh line or spending a larger amount of time blending out and rendering the area. Effect over anything else is what I go for. What is the most interesting way to trick the eye.

Also the way you use your eraser brush is very important! I do the same soft/hard trick when erasing and keeping the contrast between transitions.

This is a very quick messy rundown that I hope helps a little. If you are very stuck in not knowing what to do literally start picking random brushes while painting and go ham, see what each one does.