"Lighting is too hard, I'd rather just not mess with it at all,"

I can't tell you how many times I've said that. Probably countless. However, I always end up getting through it, and being pleasantly surprised by how much better it looks this way. Of course, it's not easy. Like I said, lighting is hard. It's always worth it though, and I'm going to do my best to make it easier *and maybe even faster* for all of you.
I'm not a lighting expert, but I created a lighting tutorial that might be of help for you.
If you have any questions about my tutorial, feel free to ask. Here are some other helpful tutorials, that I picked myself. Hopefully they'll help you as well.

And one for shadows. c:

I hope I was able to help you all, I know it's not much, but I think it's pretty good for the group's first real journal entry. There will be guidelines for submitting to the intermediate and advanced folders soon, so keep an eye out!