you've captured a moment, so keep going! Learning how to use layers and the tools takes time. This is an excellent 10th-ish piece! Save this version and keep going, or start another. Which program are you using?

Digital painting is fun. I haven't done it in a long time. I used to work in the Adobe Suite, and Corel, and some others.

I'm using Fresco, which is part of the Adobe suite.

I still have access via my last semester's course - not sure whether I'll have access this semester or ot. I've used (Corel) PaintShop Pro since the 90s for photo editing. It's about 10% of the cost and has very close to the same toolset as PhotoShop.

I've got two semester's experience with Adobe Photoshop, but Fresco's layers are more primitive. And I'm not perfect yet with Photoshop layers for photography.

There's also a free program called gimp, which has most of the features of Photoshop.

Fresco was not in the suite when I worked with it, but it sounds like a vector program? Anyway, it takes time and practice. I started working in it in 2000, so the suite has been updated since. I still have it on an old mac, but it's so old I can't even start it up!

Looking forward to more from you!

Raster, vector, and live. The painting brushes are the live style (oil and watercolor). The paint stays "wet" as you paint, so it is relatively close to actual painting. Ink brushes (and pencil, charcoal, conte) are part of the raster collection.

Mostly I'm using it as an excuse to practice with a wacom tablet. I've been using the touch pad to edit all my photos, and my professor (the guy in the watercolor) has been pushing me to use a tablet - which I've tried on the past and found harder to use. His theory is that if I use it exclusively for a few weeks I'll love it.

Once classes start I'll be doing lots of sketching. I started thinking I would play around with sketching using the tablet, but I think I need a better feel for sketching on paper before switching to digital.

... but when I have to do complex digital color work, I'll do base colors in Adobe Illustrator, then bring it into PhotoShop for the subtle tonal gradations rendered with the airbrush tool.
Try using a rich sepia tone for your linework and shadows, rather that solid black. And if possible, select a very fine soft-edged stroke for your linework, rather than a hard-edged stroke.
For technical inspiration, check out the work of Arthur Rackham. His line-and-wash work was beautiful. It's analog, of course, but the fundamentals still apply. It is worth noting that Rackham very likely applied his pen-and-ink line on top of the watercolor washes. There doesn't seem to be any residual color obscuring the definition of the linework. To avoid over-painting your lines in PhotoShop, select "DARKEN" when applying color adjacent to your linework. That way, the color will not cover the lines, because the lines are darker.
And any advice offered by Goddessartist is good advice. She knows whereof she speaks!
Persevere, and good luck!

On edit: Having come up as a professional long before the advent of computers, I cheat a little by composing the piece on paper with a pencil, then scanning it into PhotoShop, which I can then bring into Illustrator where I can apply layers over the penciled guide. I'll bounce back and forth between those two apps to make the best use of their respective capabilities.
I'm not familiar with Fresco; I'll have to check that one out. I subscribe to the full creative suite, so it's probably in there somewhere!

All great thoughts!

On at least one earlier version I used darker color versions of the background paint. I put the liners on a separate layer on top of the watercolor layer, so the watercolor doesn't pick up and bleed b the lines.

The live paints in Fresco are what I used for watercolor. I haven't seen anything else in Photoshop or PaintshopPro like them.

But sure Fresco has a darken, but I use it for photo editing in Photoshop.