Ryumaru, I've actually been drawing my feet tonight (I'll post the sketches later, haven't scanned them yet). Anyway, I thought I'd help you with the pose:

Quite a few changes. I've been trying out the current pose, and I noticed that the brighter leg is actually lower than the other leg, because it was very difficult to give the other leg some kind of foreshortening. As I made the legs longer, I added some length to the arm. Since the pelvis was tilted, I tried to tilt the ribcage by adding more on the left side.
I gave more definition to the knee: I felt as if you grouped the muscles too closely around it, so I moved them lower. I thought that the knee would look better if it faced us a bit more, considering that the foot is facing us.
I hope it helps!

Facet: I've played around with the graphs too; I usually stick to using ink brushes because despite my best efforts, I couldn't get a good pencil brush, may it be in its effects or shape, or the way it reacts to pressure. It's funny that you mention the lack of tools besides the brushes, because for my portrait, I had to open up another program to fix some proportion issues, as I couldn't do so in MyPaint.
I think I recognize the brush, the result is good!

I'm really digging those brushes, Facet! They capture charcoal effects well. I've been thinking about scanning different papers to use as texture, too.
Regarding the portrait: I love pieces done with a knife, and this is no exception! I don't know the lighting conditions you were in, but I feel that the contrast could be pushed a tiny bit further. The volumes of the face are well captured and perfectly readable, apart from the ear, which kinds of melts into the rest of the face.
The third picture is intriguing: how did you get that effect for the background? It almost looks like some databending.

I've been using MyPaint. It's similar to Painter, but of course not as sophisticated as the latter. Loads of brushes you can tweak in as much detail as you like, which is fun. I'm going to have to find a copy of Ps pretty soon...

Anyway, cool stuff, looking forward to the still life!

Ryumaru: You did a great job on rendering the torso and arms on the Deadbird dude, my favourite part being the forearm! The legs, however... maybe it's the perspective, but they don't seem to match up in terms of size, the brighter leg seeming longer than the one in the shadow; intuitively I'd do the opposite, because of foreshortening.
The way you've blocked out volumes in the second picture is what I prefer in the way you paint/draw... however, I feel as if the pose could be more dynamic. Maybe this is more dynamic?

Hey there Lachie,

I thought I'd try to help. I don't usually draw cars but this reminded me how difficult it can be.
For now you've got quite a few jagged lines, and the way you shaded the car ages it badly (reminds me of a '70s paintjob). If you look at the finish of the Duster in your ref, it's really shiny-not only that, but smooth too. Making smooth gradients isn't obvious when you want to avoid dithering and banding.

Here's my edit:

My clusters could be better, but I hope you get the idea...
I think you're going the right way with small highlights and small areas of shading, it'll avoid you having to do complicated shading: it's all about edges and getting the right shape for the clusters to convey volume (thinking of the back lights and wheel areas).

Keep going!

A study from life. I haven't done a lot so I'd be more than pleased if you have any pointers.

Thanks for your help, ptoing! This is my last go today, I'll see how I can improve it tomorrow: