Step-by-step: Paint a character wearing a veil

First of all, I draw the figure on her own layer, and then the background on a separate layer behind her. I have found that this way of doing things will make it much easier to draw part of the veil behind her. On a new layer behind the figure, I paint in the basic shape of the veil following a sketch I made earlier. I set the layer Opacity to 20 per cent. There are no folds or shading here, just a flat shape in a single shade of dark purple. On another new layer, I use that same shade of purple to paint in some folds in the fabric. To do so, I set the layer Opacity to 40 per cent. I keep doing this until I have about five layers, both in front of and behind the figure.