The only thing I don’t like about digital art is how cluttered it can get, and I can’t look back on progress as well as in my traditional one, so I’m starting a sketchbook here for studies, I guess :”]
I have problems when coloring my art pieces, so this is a half-done (i lost motivation for the water 
) color study i did without color-picking from the reference image:
A good start. 
In the beginning I found myself sinking too much time on projects. I would get frustrated but my stubborn self would slog all the way to the end. I’d then walk away frustrated, this was not a recipe for success.
I found relief in timed projects. Your goldfish would be a great 30 min time limit study. Having the clock pushing me along to the end enabled me to focus on the big parts and the overall process. Once I had a process down I was better able to self regulate the time and effort I spent on individual projects.
Also, I tended to pick projects that were a bit too ambitious. Eventually I found the right balance of fun to keep me motivated yet a little challenging to help me grow.
That sounds a bit more efficient than what I was trying to do before! 
Will try doing studies this way next time I sit down for color studies, thank you for the tip! :]
Took @dragonscales advice and went for a (seemingly) simpler reference for a 30 min sesh, turns out, leaves aren’t as simple as I thought! Still had fun with it, despite the time limit. I seem to have trouble with properly shading things (without layer modes). I don’t think I pushed the values enough, but as they say, practice makes perfect!
Great work. You even got some of the sub surface scattering in the lemon.
With a 30 min limit I’d avoid using layers. The name of the game is just throwing color on there till it looks right or your out of time.
Thank you!
I was only using one layer for this, I meant that because of the one layer rule I’m not being saved by layer blending modes for the shading (I tend to abuse multiply when something doesn’t look right ), so the lemon turned out a a bit muddy imo.
No worries. For me, picking color is a difficult task in itself. I try a few black and white paintings from time to time to eliminate that layer of problem solving.
I still think you did a good job but if you’re worried about muddy colors, don’t push the shadows so much into the red spectrum. Another approach would be to try pushing the shadows more towards the secondary light source (the blue sky in this case).
Really it just comes down to exploring and trying. Paint on.
