I would like to expand on how you can help to improve your skills in this critique, as well as some general pointers for your image here.

Firstly, I like the colours - they're simple, not overly eye-gouging and more natural. Seeing as you've shaded the hair, it looks odd that you did not shade anything else - I find that it is either better to entirely leave an image with flat colours, or shade everything. Don't be afraid to try shading, it's the only way you'll learn to do so. Also, you may have found it hard to add shading because the image itself appears quite flat - add some folds to the clothes, and you may find it easier to visualise where shading should and should not be.

Also, as a previous critique mentioned, the eye looks like it's a whole level above the rest of the image. This to me takes away from the appeal of the image as it clashes and disrupts the rest of the image. Similar to the thing about shading, try and stick to the one style throughout the image for a more harmonious appearance - it's all practice, don't be afraid to try.

Anatomicaly speaking, your character is lop sided and appears to lean to the right. The head, due to the placement of the chin's point, looks off center. The best way to combat this is to use guides. I noticed you said you've learnt to use layers; that's great, because it will allow you to do exactly the kind of things that would otherwise be difficult ro do other wise. Back to what I was saying about anatomy; now that you can use layers, a good method to improve your drawings is to sketch out your character first - draw the body shape, learn proportions (the series "How To Draw Manga" is a good set of books to read if you are particularly interested in anime/manga style, and it will show you the kinds of proportions used for the body and other things such as the face, hands and feet). Then, once you're satisfied with the look of the sketch, draw your character over it on another layer. Also, for front-on portraits, it is important to maintan a balance of the body and the placement of features. I find that using a single verticle guide line is handy for helping me keep symetry.

Good luck, I hope I have managed to give you some useful information. As long as you enjoy doing your art, then really that's the main thing You're well on your way to improving your art because you had the guts to ask for a halping hand.

This one was by request of Miyuki, so I'll write something quick and simple.

At first glance, this looks like a simple piece that was done in paint, in which it probably was, but it's not very often you find someone who's actually capable of drawing in MS paint at all. The story told to me by my first look at it was a small girl, almost a schoolgirl who's suffering the tarnishing grief of being misunderstood. What struck me about this picture was the way the hair is done, while still holding a simplistic ideal, it has great shading and some traits about it that say it almost can't be done in paint. After looking at this picture a couple of times myself, I've noticed that it wasn't actually done in paint at all, but with the confusing style, it's hard to tell what it was done on, it could have been done on paper, and edited in photoshop as far as I can tell.

The eyes in my point of view were what was done best in this drawing. They seem to outrank the skill of the rest of the picture.

When I work my way down to the over alls, they seem very lazily done, very little creativity in the lower half of her body at all, from looking at Miyuki's page, she seems to be very colorful, and I happen to like that, but the background could have used a little less color, and maybe something that didn't look like she was standing directly in the middle of a rainbow.

When I look at the over all picture, to sum it up, I'd have to say that it's very... Original Vs. Technique. The technique isn't very good, but the color of the picture really strikes you good.

This picture over all is just a smidgen below average to me.