1- Any shade a blue, Aquas are really nice 2- Barn owls!!! (Also know by the nickname valentines day owls, and are part of the Tyto family) 3- I got a shading/lighting tip. This one depends; if a character has a lighter color pallet the opacity of the dark color for shading should be lowered by a lot (personally I use .5 or lower) and vice versa for darker colors. The color I use for shading changes between a really dark navy and deep purple. I only really use black if I can't get something dark enough. Than a pale yellow for lighting. I use white still but mostly for areas that 100% in the light to give a shine affect to it. if that makes sense.

And an art tip USE REFERENCES! All I gotta say lol

1- That is a tie between Darkstalker, Peril and Blue. 2- Probably Bird With a Broken Wing, Embers or Galaxies by Owl City. 3- I'd say JaidenAnimations or TheOdd1'sOut