flats. all of my characters have a set undertone to their skin that guides what colors i choose for shading later on. rose has quite pale skin to begin with but i do pink undertones for her.

my layers up to this point. i normally do skin first rather than hair, but for completeness i got the hair out of the way first.

i add a blush to the cheeks to make her look like less of a corpse lol. i do this for my dudes, too, as most people have some pigmentation on their cheeks.

i put the small deets in so that i know where the shadows around the lips etc need to fall.

picking colors for the shadows is pretty methodical for me. i gravitate towards the left of the color wheel b/c i don't like overly saturated colors.

ok basic shading done with the first color.

these are my layers now. i put the shading on a different layer b/c i'm fussy and i'm crap at blending/painting. it makes it easier if i make a mistake.

lighting. this is my favorite bit b/c up until now she's looked a bit flat. this step brings depth to the face. i'm shit at light sources tho lol.

layersssss. lighting goes on another layer on top of shading for the same reason: i'm fussy.

i've just added some extra shading and white highlights. as i said, this is very basic and for more involved pieces the colors would be a bit more intense and varied. but you get the idea!