How do you usually go about shading your stuff?

Well first I make the lineart layer. And then I keep that at the top of all the layers. Then I create 2 new layers. One for the basic colors (for certain things I want to color. Not everything) and 1 for shading. The shading layer is ontop of the basic color layer. And then I clip the shading layer to the basic color layer. Then I can't go outside the lines. :D

A nifty trick that made this turn out so good for me was the separation of the shading and breaking it down into simple parts. First, I selected the entire sketch in an outline on a new layer, picked a grayscale-ish colour, and filled the entire thing in, then set the layer to multiplay so that it didn't overlap the lines. I made another layer after this, setting it to multiply as well, and took the basic colour palette for the thing, and made the "flat" underlying colours for it. A new normal layer, and I added in the highlights of light using the exact same colour pallet as before using a gentle approach with an airbrush. Another normal layer, with an airbrush, I hid the other layers save for the linework, and gently used an airbrush to add the shadow contrast in. Then you un-hide all the layers and see how things look. And if you're happy, just merge them all together and off you go! If you wanna try getting neat shading, give that a try and see how your work turns up. So far this seems to be a pretty solid method for adding colour to characters done in line art.

I think I understand it quite a bit.. I think I'll just use my own method for now. Works pretty good so far for me. :)

Well keep on truckin' then. Stick to what ya know best and see how far it can take ya!

Indeed! I got my method via a tutorial though.

As did I. Well, not really. I've just been watching people work, studying what they do, and finally the pieces all came together one day.