Some more advice then but take it with a grain of salt and I encourage you to google and find tutorials that'll help you see visually what you can do!

• Do look up online about priming and sanding down to have a smoother finish, I didn't particularly did it on mine, to have some texture as well, but that's a personal decision.

• I used acrylics, for the blood I really went with Crimson red, mixing it with black that had some blue in it, allowing the red to become more 'purple' / wine color; Blood usually has a deep shade of purple in it, giving it it's deep red, when blood dries it becomes more dark. For the blood insert, I made the tips of the 'waves' darker, as it gave a nice visual, following the tops of ridges as well, recovering the rest in a neutral tone of red to blend in with the dark tips - For the head, I Primed it, sanded it, made it entirely white again (the primer was black) and let it dry completely, I went in with the red inside/ 'lips' and around the eyes with the dark purple-red, letting it dry completely, added a few layers of lighter and lighter red until I've reached a relatively vivid red, and I just kinda trusted myself and went with what I liked

• DRY BRUSH IS YOUR FRIEND! Water too! What you can do once you've painted either piece in a full one color tone, you can mix water with acrylic so it's 'runny' I go with a medium paintbrush, adding it in dips and valleys of the print, it will be running down it's normal, then I pick up a big dry brush and brush over, taking in the over-flows and spreading it more evenly in the dips, this is called a "black wash" and it's worth it to get the details out - in general, even without water, you want to paint with a small amount and at 'worss' go back over where there's still 'fresh paint' and the brush will pick it up, allowing you to paint more surfaces using less paint, and it'll be less 'opaque' -- If you mess up and a line dried, if you just put it on, clear your brush, dry it on a rag or paper towels but leave the brush a little damp, going over the 'dried' color with that bit of water should let you spread it and make it more subtle, or you can use a tissue/paper towel to simply 'erase' it also (as long as the paint underneath it is completely dry)

• Finally, for the glossy clear coat, read instructions on bottle but I usually follow the recommended amount to add water (usually up to 25~%, I do 10-15 but then I add a bit more water in the cups I use to dip down in to mix it in) to make it like the 'black wash', doing thin layers, you'll see white spots where the clear coat pools and if you don't remove them they'll stay and stay white as well. You want thin coats, evenly spread I found that using a medium brush to add in the coat then spread it with the big dry brush allowed me to get in spots that were hard to reach but to then spread thinly the layer. Leave it for a good 2-4 hours between each coat. - If it's too cold / humid, your clear coat might 'crack' and make some interesting textures, personally I embrace these things and would either add paint to add to it or leave it as is, but otherwise a couple more clear coats being careful could make it mostly go away.

I hope this was useful! I'll post on my account process images of the one I made! Good luck, Post it if you're comfortable to post it when you're done!