Shading help!

I'm curious to know how everyone does their shading layer for art. Specifically tags (where the shading layer would stay the same and then you just recolor). 

What I've been doing, which I haven't been loving, is putting a transparency layer under my color layer, then coloring inside the lines with gray and then burning and dodging the shade. I then set the opacity on the above color layer to about 70%. The color quality gets compromised, and the shading isn't very vibrant. There's gotta be a better way :*)

Anyone have a more logical way to do the shading? Thanks!

And sorry if this is a dumb question xD I'm just getting back into drawing.

Depending on what you're using -

I have the base color layer and create a new layer above it.  Then right click the layer and hit 'clipping mask.' this makes a layer that can only show on whatever is beneath it (so you're always in the lines).

I take black (sometimes dark blue, sometimes dark brown, mainly black though) and color black on the areas I want shading. Then I use the smudge tool to soften the edges up a bit where needed.

Then I turn the layer to 'darken' or 'soft light' based on what looks good and move the opacity to where it looks best based on what the bottom color is (generally between 30-50%, but super bright and super dark bases will change that.

If some areas need a darker portion I just make another clipping mask layer above it and repeat the process.

I do the same for highlights, using white or pale yellow.  'Soft light' works best for making it look natural on the coat.

Hey this actually helps a ton! I knew I was doing something funky, but having the shading layer above the color works so much better. I just used a similar technique in krita on my current tag, I think it turned out good :)