MC, you should look in to Super Sculpey FIRM Gray. I had a period of intense sculpting interest myself and started frequenting a forum, http://www.shiflettbrothers.com/forum/in dex.cfm, those guys make some stellar stuff.
Anyways, point in case, the reason you should use gray clay is because it catches/shows imperfections in the clay a lot better then the pink stuff, because the pink stuff tends to catch light more.
Also, if you want to smooth stuff, what you do is get a bit of rubbing alcohol, and use a paintbrush or something. The alcohol will smooth the clay. Only use a little though or it will get over saturated.
I'm sure you're more than capable though, just some stuff I learned along the way.