welps so far every art i have looked at had beaten mine by far.... good thing i havent posted any thing (considering i only have like 3 peices mostly made during reading a tutorial >_<)

I can't do somethin like this! This is just to much!

It would seem that you didn't AA on any of the piece, and i think that really let's it down. Smooth out the edges with some AA and perhaps clean up a few areas where there are alot of harsh, choppy pixels, such as the eyebrow and lip etc. Otherwise very nice. :)

Yay! great you posted it here too! Its still great PA, just as I said on DA :p

i think you could have maybe AA the hair, and the eye lid a bit more, it stands a bit too much, however it looks great though apart from that

Could be the size of it or the lack of background. I think both actually. Areas like where the hair meets the forehead are harsh and unblended. The edge of the nose is quite jaggy, as are the lips. The highlights on the hair have similar jaggyness. Its obviously not a trace to me but thx for the refs anyhow.
The dithering is ok elsewhere. I think the main issue I have on this pixel is the size, it doesn't quite work : /

References were: http://hem.passagen.se/hehe/nick_cave.jpg
http://www.nndb.com/people/542/000026464/cave.jpg

reference?     

Thank you very much, Shaper! :D

i like the shading nice job