I really like the coloring and texture. The background looks like it would be just as coarse as a canvas if i touched it. Are you using a blur tool to do the shading or just a bunch of different swatches? I don't really do digital art but this looks like it was definitely time consuming, hehe
Well, I don't really speak digital art, so I don't know what it's called But I just lowered the opacity on the paintbrush and started shading that way from what I can tell. It's been a while since I've done this picture. As for the time, I don't remember it really taking that long. Maybe an hour or two at most.
ps. it looks PERFECT X3