Okay, so here is something that I decided to experiment with. One of my teachers informed me that the method of my coloring and rendering is actually not the best way to be doing it. It was apparently what would be a crutch later on to achieve what I wanted "easier" than if I were to do it through the use of colors and adjusting the values and saturation of those colors based off of the light source. I figured I would try out the actual digital painting process and this is what I came up with. For reference this is the same Wonder Woman that shows up in the Four Favs post I have from earlier, just with the digital painting method utilized instead of my old way of doing it. I did cheat a bit on the background and used something that I found from World of Warcraft. I did remove the color from that picture and a few crystal spires that were in the picture, then added some color for the rooftops, the sky, the foliage on the hills and the waterfall. The bushes in the mid ground and the grass were made by using a brush set that I found somewhere. I apologize to the creator of the brush set for not giving proper recognition, but all I can remember is I found it through DeviantArt.
What I find the most amusing about this is that my teacher said the way I was doing this before was "a crutch" that I should avoid. That implies to me that it was an easier way to do what I need. In practice, however, I found that the digital painting was actually much easier to do than the method I had been using. I do like the fact that the colors blend SO much more smoothly with this method. I just need to continue practicing with it so that I can get the proper richness of color that I am looking for. I am sure it is simply because of the swatches that I chose but this picture seems a touch ashen to me. That may be a result of me paying attention to the color palette more and not using colors that are not web safe. I guess since those colors tend to be highly saturated, I am used to seeing my pictures with more saturation.