A vagabond's sketchbook

[kidult]

Nice stuff going here! You posted earlier about improving your rendering skills, give some studies from life and photo studies a try. When doing them push yourself to render out some details as much as you can and then go back again and try look again. By doing this you will be able to learn how to render out details (obviously) and also how to take your own images further with detail and realism. Until you practice to render at a certain level you won't just happen upon it.
Also once you've pushed your own personal piece as far as you can go don't be scared to go check some ref to help you push it more with materials and lighting. This way you arent being a slave to the ref and you learn about improving your image.