I’ve been using HM3 for around 2 years, maybe little more, but the first time I’ve shaded was 1 year ago. I was mistaken though, the first time I shaded was with Sheleigh, but the first time I shaded the hair and skin was with The Forsaken. With The Forsaken I was looking for a challenge: a weird pose and trying to make metal look a little bit more…metallic. By mistake I faded the line art on certain pieces of equipment and realized then that it gave it a shinier look, more reflective-like. So if I could make metal look shinier why not the hair? Because the pose made the character bigger I could give it more detail, and now I mostly always enlarge the characters.
I like to try out new things on every picture, and when it works I use that trick on the next. As for the trees for shading and dirt, I’ve used it the first time with “I will protect you” when I saw the newly added trees. I wanted a gritty look and couldn’t get it with smooth circle. For the rain I tried a floor pattern and it worked.
Apart from the faded circle that gave shading, the other thing that changed my style, was when I realized that lines are lines, meaning that, depending on how you place something it can look completely differently than the original angle. And the fact that my computer can easily handle 500 layers helps a lot too 
And no, I’m not Zyp 
I’m happy that you like my heromachine-made art and I’ll be happy to answer any other questions!
Valyndril
