Well the Boneman probably know PS as well as I do but as far as general rules go, 1) The key to good re-touching is to 'touch' the image as little as possible. The more you touch it, the more modified it looks. 2) Don't paint or airbrush (ever!), clone instead and use as small a brush as possible (slightly larger than the area your trying to 'dot' out (and I've just told you something else important) when cloning out irregularies (especially textures and fabrics). If you must paint do as little of it as possible (refer to rule 1). When you're all through modifying the image duplicate it and completely desaturate the dup (make it black and white). Blur the dup (not a lot! - play with it if you're unsure how much) and boost the contrast and then apply it as 'Soft Light' layer (I'm assuming you're using Photoshop,- if not I defer to Bone who also uses PSP (I don't)). Make sure the dup sits on top of the original and adjust the transparency to suit (this adjusts the amount of the soft light effect). This has the effect of subtlely softening the edges (the blur) and enhancing the contrast (makes features stronger). If none of this helps drink a good bit of alcohol and look at it again. Both methods achieve the same result although the later is temporary and may leave you with a hangover.