(Oh my god this pic is cursed...I haven't replied to any of the comments within a decent time frame... ohmanisuck)

Hey wow, thank you!!! I'm flattered that you like it so much!You- you wanna hear the secret...?? Are you suuuure?!?!? O: (I'm still learning after all - no pro tips to be whispered here... XDDD)But if you really wanna hearrrrr... the truth is... most of it was done in one layer. Yes, really! XD If you use the water (color) tool in programs like Open Canvas and Paint Tool Sai, blending colors together is incredibly easy and natural if the colors are in the same layer to interact. Half the time the depth creates itself! Using bold contrasting colors helps a lot too - they can always be smoothed out later. I haven't really found an equivalent to these color tools/brushes in Photoshop - some kinda cross between the water color brush and the smudge tool but.. at least OC 1.1 is free lol.Another thing I've taught myself to do is to just go ahead and spam one or many colors in the bg for lighting and then start with the rest (all in the same layer), or if there is already a planned bg, to just lay the foundation for those (however roughly) first. Half the time the bg color intrudes (intentionally) elsewhere in the coloring, but so subtly it's hardly ever noticed, but it adds a much needed color variation and keeps flatness at bay. I also do this with all other colors - you can find traces of green in her hair here, for example, though it's hard to see unless you're looking for it!The only times I use more than one layer are if I wanna make a significant addition (like an object in the foreground or something), and if I don't want those colors to be a hasle to edit. But even with these it's usually better to just add it in the same layer, or to merge it after some tweaking.I also copy the entire layer a couple of times when color balancing and stuff at the end but that probably doesn't count lol....Ahhh I suck at explaining, but hopefully that's understandable lol. XD I used to color using a separate layers for everything a while ago, but in the end it got so tedious and flat and boring for me that I just decided to 'scew the coloring rules' and go mad on Open Canvas. In the process I ended up teaching myself to appreciate color over 'shading'! So I think just going crazy with some colors is a good step in learning.