For something of that size, I'd recommend using more contrast and exaggerating its features. As it is, I'm finding it hard to see the details you've put in this piece as all the colours are very similar and there isn't a lot of depth. Also, seeing as the bend in the stick and the spike on the end seem to be highly unique elements in the original version, I'd suggest making them a lot more prominent. They're a bit subdued as it is, barely noticeable.

The shinies on the ball are the current draw of the piece, and they work quite well, but try to give a lot more depth of shade to the other parts of the wand.

Man, it's weird getting back on this C&C horse. Haven't done it in so long, heh.

Hrmm... no comments at all? Odd.

The main highlights of this for me are the SUPER SPARKLE-Y HAPPY FUN TIME spectres. Okay, so they're not happy, but your use of stylistic dither there adds a very nice effect. The facial expressions are well done also.

My criticisms are as follows: The lighting is inconsistent in a number of areas. The glow from the base of the middle character seems like it should light up the rest of his shirt, not cut-off as abruptly as it does. The lighting for the left character is strange... doesn't seem to be lit by either the top-left light source, or the central one. It seems to be lit from the camera, which doesn't look nearly as dynamic as the other two.

My other crit is the central character's nose... it's very flat and undefined. If it's being lit from below then there should be a shadow pointing upwards, if you get my drift.

Good use of colour here, and overall quite a nice piece.

leel: I think the nose looks a fair bit flatter in your rendition than the photo. Needs to be a bit more tapered around the middle (not as wide), and the tip should be more rounded. The nostrils are a bit too small also. Panda did a good version of it in his edit, the general shape of the end of the nose is closer to that.

I'm very fond of the background on the last piece, but not the character. Looks like something I'd want as a desktop image.

Yeah, the last pic is pretty cool, but I think it would be better if that big dude weren't blocking out the abstract background, which looks like some kind of really cool sky. If the whole image were just that bg with maybe a few birds or some abstract creature in the distance it would be pretty awesome.

Cool, thanks. Yeah, the character was more an experiment in 'style' than in good design. Maybe I'll do something with the background though, if you both like it.

In the portrait: It's really good, but the two things that stand out most to me are the fact that the eyes are completely flat - no kind of shine that eyes are usually known for - and the nearest cheek is pretty flat as well.
The green tint makes it look kind of sickly (I'm talking about the normal colors, here) and the palette's kind of boring. Everything is so desaturated.
Also, the hair looks like it has a corner. It goes from being just vertical lines on the side to just horizontal on top. If you fixed that and made it transition smoothly and roundly, then that would pretty much fix everything that I can see right now.
 

Alrighty then, I'll see if I can't fix those issues. Cheers.

So, no other problems with the facial structure/details? That's usually where I fail the most, though I did actually use a reference this time (mirror + my face) so guess that helped.

EDIT: Don't want to double-post, so here is my latest version: