I've started a new series of pieces where I do case studies to study and practice artwork to make my skills better. I'm not set out to make photo realistic artwork or to blow people away with my artwork, but only to simply be better at what I do and be able to make beautiful artwork if the need arises. Most of my work won't be this detailed and handled this carefully with shading because most of my work, next year, will be animations rather than comics. They, unless for a specific reason, (*Cough cough* My perfectionism...) will look nice, but not as nice as my case studies, commissions, and anything else that are better than sketches.
This is the before picture without the shading. The after picture, at my current rate, will be finished in a day or two. Until then, should you decide, study this picture and compare it to the after picture in a day or so.