I find using grass brushes makes things too uniform - nature is much more random. Combining techniques overcomes this regularity.

Painting shadows comes up with almost every piece of art I create. Lighting is critical to creating believable scenes and grounding objects.

I've painted lots of people with glasses. I found it easiest to paint the faces WITHOUT glasses first, then add them on a new layer. Same with lenses.

Another method for creating a "painted" surface (different from my Andy Warhol post). In this instance, I wanted to have the scene look like a painted canvas in a style similar to Frida Kahlo's paintings.

"Shiny stuff" appears in all sorts of places. Learning how it reacts with light and surfaces makes it fast & easy to paint these details convincingly.

I was getting lazy with value studies before doing final paintings, yet I always tell students how important they are to creating "readable" illustrations. Now always I take the time.

When I have to render "generic" people, I find it easier to use either reference of a random person, or take traits from multiple celebrities so it doesn't look like one specific person., but still gives me details.