Care to give tips to a Photoshop n00b?

[Mikomi Katsura]

I need help with:

- Hair shading
- Emphasizing light
- Background coloring
- Skin shading
- Basically ANYTHING. xD !!!

I thought that I could wing using Photoshop but ... Eh ... It's not coming out so hawt. ><;; *Is an epic FAILURE.
I really don't know how to finish it from here. I didn't do the line art layer either because I liked how my sketch was and didn't think there would be a huge difference if I did the line art. The picture below is what I'm working on. Plus, I don't have one of those drawing tablet things since I'm dirt poor, so I'm basically coloring with a mouse here as well.

Help is GREATLY, and I mean ... HUGE-I-COULD-SMEX-YOU-GREATLY appreciated. <3

 

[Aiya Spiritweaver]

here are a couple differant types of Soft cell shadeing. I dont know what kind of style you would prefur.

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2  

[nite elf]

i learned to use photoshop by just playing around with the tools and looking at tuts on dev  

[Kandieren]

The outline is really nice. Have you checked DA out for tutorials? A lot of them there are really helpful. Use a lot of blending. Pretend that you are painting with oils/acrylics, etc. Light to dark. And don't forget your light source, of course. http://www.deviantart.com