Ah-HA! Yes, this is exactly what I wanted to know about. (I didn't want to pester you about group layers/folders, again.) So. Yes. In the demos I've studied every little thing is separated. It's a bear.

So, you will set up identical folders for each character or major part of the composition (i.e. grayscale, colors, textures, adjustments), instead of doing the grayscale, etc., for all of them on one layer.



Initially I was doing the latter - using four categories (local color, shade, brights and highlights). These were done on separate layers, each one using a different blending mode (local color-normal; shade-multiply; brights-overlay; highlights-screen). Then, discovered the next step up was to divide the composition to handle different parts in folders, replicating the categories in each folder. Then I learned how to create templates for each folder using clipping masks so that I could color big and loose without going outside the lines, so to speak. AND THEN I saw how this whole thing played out, over and over, by breaking things down into smaller and smaller parts. It started to overwhelm me, so, that's why I had to ask.



Thanks very much for this very helpful information! I"m sure that in time I'll work out a method that works well for me, but it will be easier to do that by making use of the experience of others who have already solved the problem for themselves than by re-inventing the wheel.