So, in the process of remaking Celia after I lost my files, I decided to give the High Key lighting another try. While this time it actually IS high key, compared to my last one, I still don't like it. I'm much more interested in the shapes and contours that low key brings out compared to the flatness of high key. Still, I post it.
After that, I'm removing all the textures from the model, applying a grey clay mat and working on getting the details and the shapes right. I went back to 8.0, it's much faster to render than 8.1 and while I'll need to spend a ton of time to get the skin shaders to look as good as they did in 8.1, I think it might be a win overall as far as time spent when counting the render times. Problem is..I have no idea how to make something as good as the PBR shader with the uber shader.
EDIT: Also yes. Painterly effect because denoiser. While it's much faster than 8.1, I still didn't like the render enough to let it work past 250 iterations.