Ooh that shading! Especially on the hair! And those eyes too.

You've been playing around with techniques haven't you? It paid off! lol

Your BF's suggestions are very good! Using references is the best way to improve, especially when it comes to lighting. It's the best thing for anything, really. Anatomy, coloring, lighting, etc. I should travel back in time and screech at myself (in 2OI2) for refusing to use much reference because of silly "I don't use references :P" pride. Or whatever. lol.

I love realistic shading a lot and love realistic-ish coloring, so coloring and shading's my favorite thing to do. I guess that's why my shading is how it is. XD
Shading used to be a bit of a chore even to me, but over time I've experimented and found ways to make it an enjoyable thing.

I was just looking through some comments on one of my pics, and I apparently missed your comment asking if I wanted to do another AT... Whoops!

At the moment, I'm pretty much mainly doing the comics with Marcus (And other ponies. Got ideas for two Raph comics. I've written the dialogue, just gotta draw them out... lolol. Poor Raph.) so no ATs for now. They wouldn't be the same quality as that last batch I did. :P

When I start doing ATs again, though, I'll let you know!

*insert comment here*

Aw man, sucks that your internet's out! I'd go nuts without internet. lol.
Atleast you're okay though.

I always leave a random comment in the gallery of someone who's been gone for close to a month (or more), it's basically me letting (person) know that I haven't forgotten about em.
I even occasionally comment on super old posts. I'm the only one that does it, most of the time.

I wonder if anyone would do that for me if I straight up disappeared off here for a long time without a warning/notice beforehand, haha.

Welcome back! Must've sucked when you didn't have internet.

And I don't know how much lore I'll be posting, I still think up things but I'm not really working on any character pictures aside from that Raphael one I posted. (Might do updated pictures for Marc, Marissa and Vince though)

lol I'm on a bit of a bee spree (...ha) right now /and/ I'm working on a few gifts/fanart for some people. I want the pics to be suprises so no posting them til they're done :P

That's funny. XD

And peacock eels? Ooh, are they blue? I've never even heard of them until you mentioned them. But, that's not suprising because arthropods are the main animals I read about. I never, ever, ever get tired of reading about them. :P

Though I don't take in info that well and forget a lot of things. A side effect of anxiety, I assume.

Also! If you wanna see what the peacock carpenter bees look like (because there's no telling how long it'll be before I draw one) there are images of them on google images. There aren't many, but there are a few atleast. Just type in "peacock carpenter bee" (OR xylocopa bombylans) and you'll see em. They're iridescent teal & green.

I think the blue/malaysian (xylocopa caerulea) carpenter bees are the prettiest of the carpenter bees, (that I know of) but peacock ones are pretty too.

And regardless of looks or anything, every bee in existance is precious to me. lol
Almost every arthropod is precious to me, but ones like fleas and mosquitos aren't so great. I don't hate them, because they're not malicious, they're acting off instinct, but I don't love them either.

Ahh. It'd be neat if they were blue lol. Though there could be some undescovered blue species somewhere in some remote place, like maybe a river somewhere. Who knows!
Also, good luck with your eels, I hope all stays well with them.

And yep I definitely love my bugs, almost more than life itself sometimes. I don't collect them, seeing dead ones makes me feel sad. I'd rather go outside and have a maybe small chance of seeing a specific bug instead of being able to look at a dead one at any time.
I view dead bugs the same way as I view any other dead animals, it saddens me to see it. In some cases it even bothers me a little more to see bugs dead, which is pretty screwed up, but it's how I am.

Merry-slightly-belated-Christmas, hope you had a nice Christmas!