hey everybody, angler here. 
looking for further advice and providing tips to fellow beginners after a month of experimenting. 

tips from myself to other beginners what worked for me. 

1. invest in synthetic AND natural bristle brushes, and take care of them, brush cleaners are amazing and will keep the tip nice and sharp for finer work and maintain the brushes for longer.

2. Go back to basics. Look at tutorials and by all means take in as much theory as you can, but what worked for me was not trying to replicate advanced techniques but imitate with basic techniques. What's the most basic we can go? Layering. 

master layering before anything else. Glazes are included in this as it will make for smoother transitions.

use multiple layers and midtones for smoother blends.

3. stop using zenithal lighting, it's uncomplimentary and makes highlight placing in lower areas difficult to pick out. Use frontal lateral lighting and you'll be able to see much more clearly natural highlight placements. I'm still messing with this, but I found it much easier to work with and it gives better volumetric highlights. 

4. Dont save your more expensive minis for when you get better and start painting them. You're much more inclined to keep up and be consistent painting something you're actually interested in. 

as always happy to take tips and further advice/critism. 

Happy painting! 

1 month later, progress. Thank you to the community!