Ref Studies and Practice Paintings

Practice Painting #1 starting. I'm trying to define a rhythm/rule set to follow when approaching my paintings. I think working out the anatomy of the pose on paper works, but I need to be sure to think about the thumbnail as a whole and not simply the figure. This image isn't a good example of this, however I just plan on working through some challenges such as invented lighting, skin tones, and action. (Experimentation Time)

This is where it's at now.

First time try sketching with the tablet before I started doing Painting studies...

Heres another Painting study from reference.

Ok well I've been feeling really down about my ability lately and I feel like I'm so far behind in what I should know by now that my brain is beginning to fry as I struggle to keep up. School at UCSD is kicking in and it looks like my schedule is going to be chaotic... but I think I should welcome the chaos and work within it...