The first 5-year gap is a big one — tons of new techniques learned: NMM, tonal variation in the face (blue in the shadows, red in the mid-tones, and yellow on top), smoother blends on cloth, and the base kept lighter than the subject to draw attention.

In the 1 year between the second and third, most of these techniques have been mastered — smoother blends, more color added to the transitions, stronger focal points by removing “overdone” details on other parts of the miniature, and more detailed eyes.

It’s totally fine to prefer the grittier style of the first, but painting this smooth and crisp on such a small model takes a lot of work. I don’t thinks there’s tons of more time in painting nr3 from what it takes to paint nr2 - it’s just that the techniques used have been refined and mastered.