upcoming cover design for IF-x

I was asked to do a cover IF-X comics and I can't seem to say no to trying something new- so I mocked up my character FX-Mulrooney for a comic with an April fools theme. So if you understand the hardcore nature of my FX character- there is some humor in it- any way here was my process... first drew draft image on paper and cleaned up in photoshop.... but the base image anatomy and composition were weak at first- so i redid the image- focusing on a foreshortened and perspective of the piece with the focus on face- to show some expression. After a good compositional pose was created- I lightened the image on layer (not background) and set opacity of layer to 35- I then inked the piece ( in photoshop) using hard brush, the pen tool, and a combination of both. On layer below- i add the flat colors- one above that and below the line add shading on mutliply layer - using a large soft brush at low opacity and flow. and a final high light layer on normal. my last part is to color the background with a two color gradient... so that's it.... the image will be used with text and masterhead for IFX for the april Fools issue- cool....

quik photoshop drawing

I am trying to get ready for a toy character mock up I am doing for a local performance artist so I need to draw cute girls in action- I decided to warm up with some photoshop tools and created this as a test for me- its created all in photoshop- I sketched the image with small hard brushes at 100% opacity and about 8-15 flow(adjusting level to lighten up drawing)... I then modified brushes to larger brushes with brush shape modified thickness at 65%- and used pen tool (( note when using pen tool or illustrator brush tools-remember to hide ends of lines if possible)) to draw out outlines of the border shapes and use stroke path- this gave me a clean inked line look (on new layer on top)- created some layers underneath- at layer below laid out flat colors and did a shadow layer above flat colors (multiply layer)- all along use flat color(layer) areas as selection so I color in the lines- I finally add another layer between line and multiply layer for highlights and final rendering pushes- as a render I use smudge brushes larger at low strength for larger smoothing areas and small brush at 85% for hair renders....I keep background layer clear for a gradient selection two hue image- I use levels adjustment to get a less saturated mood..... and that's it- still have a lot to learn... every image I just wish to keep getting better...

any critiques....?