My old art teacher said something about layers that I keep thinking about
She saw my flat 40 layer PSD and said "you're painting like each layer is a finished thing, not a step." I started naming every layer like a to-do list item (shadow base, rim light, bounce) and my shading time dropped from 6 hours to 2. Anyone else rename their layers mid piece or am I just weird?
Kept my 40 layers and just got faster by practicing the actual painting part. Naming layers is a band-aid, you still don't know how shadow and light work, you just wrote it down. Six hours to two sounds less like growth and more like you skipping the thinking step.