@Matt Standafer thanks for sharing Matt! Ok step one, don't call yourself a scratcher. You're obviously serious, looking to work on your skills & progress, so you're not a scratcher. When you say blend shading into colour, are you talking about using black before you add colour? So you're trying to get a smooth transition? I'm happy to talk about colour techniques as I've gone heavily into bold colour realism the past few years. There are lots of useful techniques, but they do start to get into advanced tattooing.