I would agree that it's not a good idea to handpaint normals, but sometimes fixing a minor normal map error by blending between 2 maps is way easier than figuring out a different way to model or bake it :(
Second time I try to do handpainted diffuse only models! Nice project for Halloween! https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lVd5ok C&C always welcomed, dont go hard on me :(
been working on the textures a fair bit. Still going to need to do a lot of work obviously, but I'll get there. This is all handpainted with baked lighting, there's no pbr reflections or anything