i bet you'll be surprised how much became muscle memory once you start again though! i feel like the neural pathways get formed when you're taking a class even if you can't consciously remember. or at least that's what i tell myself to feel better about all the money i spent on school

definitely really flexible with mistakes! and transparency really becomes a breeze, there's a little slider for it both on the layer and on the brush.

oh yeah, i'm always zooming in and out. PS actually has a little floating window that will show me the whole canvas zoomed out while i'm zoomed in on the actual canvas, it's so helpful. i still zoom out on the real canvas too, but it's nice to be able to always look at it zoomed out. and yeah, somehow i feel like crisper lines can still give a very soft illusion, and tool shading ends up looking more blurry to me.

definitely smart to look at others work! i love scrolling tumblr and zooming in on pieces i like to see how they did it. it's a lot easier to see someone's method in pixels than in anti-aliased art, for me. and it's so cool to be able to reference old video games!