Photoshop Question?

When I use Adobe Illustrator CS & Photoshop, I often apply affects and gradients to change the way a color "feels" to me. Just like in a sketch with pastels or colored pencils, the intensity of the color, or the "feel", changes with every stroke. In order to get that same result, there are several standard effects & filters in Photoshop...as well as several add-on filters you can purchase online. More times than not, I end up applying multiple fills with varying transparencies to get the look just right. There are numerous books on the subject, the easiest one to start with is the Dummy series(Adobe PS for Dummies, etc, etc).