Welcome to the forum Deviantpersona! As mentioned already by TristanGST this forum is really nice and you can learn a lot from it... Especially when posting pictures and waiting for feedback, as you did!
So here my comments, the NMM is already looking really good for a first try! It is true that a little bit more contrast will look even better, you can also consider adding a glaze to add a colored tint to your NMM with a really diluted paint (red brown or blueish tones) to add more depth to your color scheme. I would go for the brownish red to contrast with the blue cloak. You can also improve your NMM by reversing the direction of your blend on both edges of your blade, one edge your shadow in one direction the other edge the shadow in opposite direction. both edges of a blade doesn't reflect the same way. It is in a way easier. If you want to put some highlight in the middle of one edge (as you did), you can put shadows on one edge where the highlight is on the other edge and always have opposite contrast. It will help a lot form my experiences.
Then the face looks quite OK, the cloak you can add some highlights, the skin I believe it is under going, but don't hesitate to go deep in the contrast adding some purple, even some slight tint of green for the shadows and midtones, in order to mark the muscles and the body forms/shapes. For the hair try to add some definition, use more middle colors it is quite hard to blend but it must be done with almost non-diluted paint but in more different steps of colors from dark to brighter, it can also reflect other colors and tints.
One experience sharing, I am currently discovering and learning to add other colors and tints to a color scheme. I started with blue then going to lighter blue for highlight and darker blue for shadows, then I realized I can use other color then black for shadows, I used some dark purple. It already add some depth to the shadow and I was quite happy with the results. Then I started to use some mid-tones color different than blue, for example some greenish colors in the middle, or purpleish... Some worked really well and it was another steps. Now I tried to do similar with my highlights, where I add some colored tint of the complementary color to my highlight, then also looking quite good with a really high contrast... I don't mean that it should be used on all the model depending on your atmosphere, but it was really good learning steps for me and was quite enjoyable!
So good luck with your mini but you really seem on the right track, continue posting to get some feedback and show us your progress...
Yeah, I'm more of a traditional painter with oils on canvas, so its much different with that since its all 2d. Painting these minis has been quite an adventure, as I've used another to practice techniques on and stripped it over and over again. This mini will be the first I paint to completion, and even though I will use it on table top, I want it to look good lol
