If the onion ring im picking it up

First of all, I already think was you have is great.

I always start with blocking out the face shape and hair like this, which frankly, I think you already did really well. The features are in the right spots, the hair just needs a bit more volume at the top.

Now for rendering, since you clarified in the reply to my reply, I start with this blocking out

And then add base colors. Multiple layers, the same layer, it does affect some things, but honestly, isn’t super important. Your base is already really good, so adding flats should be easy enough. I’m choosing to render somewhat painty, but this applies to simpler cell shading styles as well.

Now we start getting to some detail. I added the flats to the scar color (should’ve done that earlier :/) and started added shading. I always shade skin, when there isn’t a discernible environment, a bit darker than the base color and the either more red or more green, depending on what the undertones of the skin are. There’s a lot to learn about blood vessels and fat and undertones, but generally, the cheeks and tip of the nose are more red.

It’s important to go slow. Big details, and then get progressively smaller. Don’t overthink the early steps.

Like I said, keep adding details. Now, I’m not super satisfied with this, but I literally only spent 20 minutes on this, so eh. The point still stands. Highlights towards the lights, cast shadows are different from form shadows, bounce light, subsurface scattering based on material… this is all stuff that takes time and due to my rushed render, isn’t very clear here.

This is an older example of one of my works, but it shows the rendering style well.

When I’m drawing a specific character I look at a few specific things. Head shape, Hair shape, and the face.