Well as for what they do, there’s a tutorial over here that shows the various layer styles. And as for what they are, they’re comparable to pieces of paper or transparent film that you can draw on and pile up like a tasty picture cake.

Some people use only one layer, which is more like traditional art, others use lots and lots of layers. This is generally how I structure my layers:

It looks like a lot…and well…it is a lot…usually I don’t name my layers either :| I’ve gotten used to how I structure stuff, so even with a lot of layers I tend to remember where everything is. Somehow.

I start with the lines, make layers under that for every base colour, then make a group for each colour to contain the various shading layers. One step I’ve added recently is a paint over layer that’s above everything, this is just to touch up bits I’ve missed or to add extra shadows or highlights.

Yeah I’m not quite sure what I can say on this subject ^^’ everyone uses layers differently, they’re a fairly simple concept but with so many ways to use them it’s hard to list everything!

There’s nothing really to show! I work with pretty basic layers, some sketched roughs, a line layer above it, and a colour layer under that. If there are a couple of things moving or static I’ll group stuff, so for this I had a background group, an arm group over that, coat and head over that, and faces on top of everything.

That’s about it, just a series of groups of line and colour layers.

I describe a lot of that here! I tend to go by what hue looks darker rather than what shade looks darker, so in the case of yellow I generally go for orange, or occasionally green.

It’s just habit and what I think looks nice really! I’ve favoured shading with hues since around 2008/09 so it’s just how I work.