hey syntax
quick crit , you need to work on your values and mark-making esspecially with your edges,
with the girl study you have that samey muddy digital material every where because your not varying your edges or pushing your values and using the wrong brushes for the wrong purposes.
on the girl you used a soft brush to paint a hard outline, you kinda know some programatical painting tricks like you used dodge or color dodge to hit the highlights in her hair and the metal studies but beware those tricks will damage your painting than help it becuase i really blast everything to white and blows out the color tempreture so yh.. use it sparingly
so yh dude work on your drawing and values i suggest hitting the loomis books, all 6 of them are free pdfs online google dat shit.
for value check out my sketchbook follow the value study form scot robertsons mate suface rendering dvds
look forward to seeing your stuff man
oh and move out the mid-west loool :P