and this is what it looks like when i do base-coloring right

(obviously her eyes and cutiemark are missing color, i'm about to paint so i didn't bother. also the outline, that normally wouldnt be there)
bah, this is going to be hard and time consuming. already i can see how much i'm going to have to do to the trees, the ground, the walkway, the water, and the sky.
and that's just the background. though i'm not expecting Celestia's body to be too hard to paint. there's still lighting and other things i have to consider and want to do with color-shading. i really hope it comes out decent in the end.