Welcome to Gaia! ::

One thing that stands out in all of your drawings: lack of anatomy. You need to learn the basics of art, and what teachers tell you the most is to know your anatomy. Every artist should know this and learn it, and it can best be taught through realism. I cannot tell you specifics, as there are errors in anatomy in each and every art piece, but if you apply yourself to learning more about how your body is composed of, you can take your art much, much higher.

P.S. Use this for a good reference.

I know I haven't done the hair razz

Anything else?

The difference between using and not using reference :d

(First time realism attempt)

They're not bad. Keep practicing and keep referencing stuff as you go. You'll pick up a lot of the techniques as you go.

The two parts that pop out at me the most are the way you do hair and also the lack of contrast in some areas. I'm also not entirely sure you understand the forms in 3D yet.

For now, try using only the brush tool. No blur, no smudging, no anything extra. Start wide and blocky and gradually work your way to finer detail. To erase, cover your mistake with another color. Only change the size, opacity, and color, but not the type of brush. See how you do under those limitations first.

Also, why don't you do your next piece in grayscale and see how it turns out? It'll be good practice and you won't have to worry about colors. Only the varying values.

For hair, you're falling into the common trap of painting every strand. Notice how hair clumps together and paint it as a whole, not as an individual piece. It'll look more natural like that.

All of this said, remember that the original sketch is the most important part of your whole image. If it's not strong enough to stand by itself, there's no way that your finished painting will turn out well. So don't neglect your basic drawing skills.

Also... not sure if you are doing this or not, but avoiding tracing over photographs. If you have to use a photo reference (which you'll want to be careful with), then make sure that you have more than one reference photo and reference all of them. Don't just try to copy one photo unless you're absolutely desperate. Whenever possible, draw from life instead. If there are no people around to model for you, try drawing inanimate objects like bottles. It sounds boring, but the fundamentals will really help you in the long run.

I did a basic line layout, then painted it over it at first with big blotches of color, went in with smaller blotches of color, etc.

done today

done yesterday