Update, I spent maybe 10 minutes to make this, as my interest in side projects is sporadic, but to give an idea of the length of time to make updates, it really is much much faster to freehand, and learn to use the painting tools really well, and I think it looks a lot better than vectors unless you invest HUGE time to make the vectors look just right, and even then the blending will just never really be perfect, but I have (nonetheless) seen some incredible work from some dedicated people before, just look at forza liveries.
At any rate, here is a small update, showing first pass at how I was shading the hair, which I just don't like, and pass 2. I think Pass 2 looks good at least in the scale its designed for, and I EXPECT that it will eventually look even better. I don't want to merge any layers just in case I want to play around with added layers of detail.