@Ambivorous Damn dude! Those studies are amazing! Looks almost real. How do you do it? And are you using Photoshop? I am impressed!
Thank you!~ All my effort is finally starting to pay off! Still have a long way to go though.
How? Fifty value studies into another ten of these.

Just practice, practice, practice. Probably a hundred hours of practice. The value studies helped immensely, and I really need to thank whoever got me on to those.
Changed.
My.
Life.
I use Krita, but honestly I could use anything that has a round brush since that's all I use.

Away for the weekend, so either I won't be doing any studies (because I'm too busy having fun), or I'll post a batch on Sunday evening (because I doubt I'll have internet where I'm going).