but I need to improve, and I do not really know where.
sorry, but you won't find many things here that would help. Most of the forums are showing minis and getting cheered on. Advice or Critique are very rare.
The direction is somewhere in the composition, as I am not 100% happy with the color harmony of the Chaos Lord.
composition != color harmony.
on the lord the colors are not bad imho. I'd have made the gold more orangey. This yellow stands out, and somehow has a greenish tinge to it, that's not the best for color harmony. Was it shaded with black? That would explain it, as most blacks are really just very dark blues.
And the cape could have been a muted blue, but I like to dull most of the colors even in fantasy minis, where they are painted vivid most of the time.
As for composition it's ok. Mostly a vertical line (because of the flag) with a bit of sideways diagonal because of the sword/arm. But that's the figure itself. Maybe could have been balanced with a small tree on the left side to stop that sideways direction.
What I can suggest:
- painting workshops from Jarhead / Ben Komets . They are not that expensive even with the travel expenses. While you attend the family could go around in Augsburg/Berlin. Jarheads beginner (for compositions) or basing are the best for this (OSL , speed paint, zombie ones not so much)
- MiG FAQ2 (diorama part at the end of the book), MiG Diorama FAQ (has quite a bit on composition), other books (from scale modelling, not fantasy/scifi ones) on dioramas/vignettes
Other one is the female skin...
how??? you have the reference you need (wife, daugther, friends, even google helps out with ref. photoes)
but in general you use more red in the skintone and less contrast. Then again you can go pretty extreme in contrast:
Elf Princess
Also some vids on
figurines-tv (they are mostly in french/spanish, but seeing it still help understand)
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Pepa Saavedra - Cleopatra
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Delphine Agnello - Female Face
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Julio Cabos - Pinup
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Marion Ball - Face (altough not female, but still help in skintones)
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Mathieu Lalain - Fianna skin with acrylics
or you could just play around like I do.

(for example the shieldmaiden in my gallery: mix of flesh colors as base, highlighted with pastel blues(instead of the usual light flesh/ivory) , shaded with pastels instead of paints)