Need help with shading/drawing in general

[Light]

try adding more and firmer strokes with the brush to define hair strands (similar to the way you did it in the back side of the hair) it will result in your hair having a more natural texture rather than looking doughy.

I've given your advice a try ( this time on paper ) and I took a closer look at how people outline their work



I guess it still look a bit stiff and stuff.
When im done with the outlining I will scan it and try to add color to it.

Also I want to know : So when you draw do you usually just do it from scratch just with your imagination or do you take other pictures as reference ?
I always feel like if you don't do it from just your imagination you don't really get anything out of it if you just copy a drawing and try to imitate it.
But I guess thats how most of people learn - by imitating and then adding their own style to it until they know how it works.

why would using the blur/smudge tool be cheating?! yes they do make the job easier sometimes but their tools put there so you can make use of them :P

It feels like cheating because if I look at for example Anime Series then 90% of the time the charatcers consist of mainly 2 colors or maaaaaayyyybe 3.
The style you suggested me to learn first by only having 2 colors for each part.
And if I use the blur smudge tool it just does not really look right to me.

If I try to shade it with only 2 colors without the smudge or blur it look really awkward too x.x or maybe I just have the wrong settings.