Value and render study

I haven't uploaded anything in the last few days due to frustration. Mostly it consisted of starting a study.... messing proportions up ... starting to render and realising it looked shit compared to what I was studying..... BUT!!!... I THINK (fingers crossed) I found a technique that works fast and easy for me where I can bang out the proportions correctly . Another issue I had was rendering... I'm a picky bastard - and when I am rendering skin... I insist on it being super smooth if I can... but over the last few days... I would try and render and smooth it with a little airbrush - but once that was done... it looked flat.... So I think I am gonna stick to the more hard edged look like this. Granted there are some smooth areas that I have worked longer on... but it has form still.. soft edges and hard edges.
RANT OVER!!

So yeh... a study on general anatomy, form, planes and trying to render differently. Its not finished fully (obviously) lol... it was more to test the new method and get over my frustration with something half decent for a study.