starting again

I had to wipe my computer and have just  re-loaded some programs and left off many others that I had previously before my computer went kaboom- so I need to start creating some more art work in preparation for comic come-back- so here  is another head shot done in photoshop- lost my sketchbook-pro... I am trying to be smarter about coloring so I used two layers- on for flats and second for gradient shadows... instead of using a soft large brush over a mask, I am using gradients for shadows with the selection tool- if the transition in shadow is too great - I reduce the opacity of the layer to blend better...