If you're confused about what each means, color-picking shading is a result of you picking the colors for the shadows and highlights manually by using the color wheel in your digital art program. Similar to mixing colors using acrylic paints, or using watercolors, or even blending by using markers/colored pencils/crayons/etc. For example, rather than relying on Multiply and Overlay, you decide that you're going to manually choose the perfect shade of orange to highlight the purple hue you're working with—and, alternatively, the perfect hue and tone for the shading of the purple hue. Blending Mode shading is the result of you choosing the blending mode of your art program (e.g.: luminosity and multiply) to provide the perfect hue and tone of your shadows and highlights with very little input from yourself (aside from choosing the basic hue, the opacity of the layer, and the mode itself).

Anyway, here's my opinion: In the past, when I was about 13-14 and started using FireAlpaca and Medibang Paint, I used blending modes to add shading and lighting to my artwork. I used these filters exclusively, not using any type of manual color-picking whatsoever. As I started learning how to paint, I decided to learn color-picking instead of relying on Multiply/Overlay for the toning. I utilized it about 2-3 times in the past 2 years, heavily preferring Multiply/Overlay simply for the ease and speed of relying on these filters. Recently, however, I've been failing at utilizing adequate toning with these filters—even when I utilize over 5 layers, it appears to me as if I used 1-2 at most in terms of results, and it's difficult to receive the soft, blended, painterly toning I was once known for with these filters. I am uncertain as to whether it is because of the brushes I'm utilizing or if it is because I am no longer accustomed to shading anymore since I didn't create too many fully colored pieces last year. However, I started to realize that I prefer shading and toning with the color-picking method than I do with the standard method—despite the time-consuming process, the results are much more satisfying to me and it feels more fulfilling utilizing this option rather than the alternative. What I enjoy doing most is mixing color-picking with blending mode shading/effects. Since I tend to usually do the color-picking shading on one layer, the file sizes are smaller, and despite the one-layer shading, it appears as though I've utilized multiple layers—possibly because of the different colors being utilized when compared to blending mode shading. With blending mode shading, I have to add more than 5 layers of shading + more than 3 layers of "detailed shading" (i.e.: micro shading for more detail and separation/enhancement from the primary shading) and lighting to acheive the most detailed, exhilarating piece it can possibly be. With color-picking, it's easier to do this in only one layer (or less than 5) and somewhat less time-consuming. I may still utilize both options depending on my mood and the complexity of the color scheme of the piece and characters, but I heavily prefer color-picking + blending mode enhancement over exclusive blending mode shading.

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