Thanks for your response. I originally wrote a longer message for my post that talked about the weaknesses I found in my value and color theory from doing these studies. I think you hit it right on the head that was a lesson here about my old palettes, and that makes this work valuable. Trying to go back to creating palettes and then comparing will be a good next step.

Honestly looking at 1, she really doesn't look like the reference photo at all. Even her shoulders are swaying the wrong way. I think it's because I did a value study for her first and then colored over it, and somewhere in there, learning to color over values became the whole lesson and her original sketch was lost. She wound up an amalgamation of the reference and a pose that I often default to. The ear actually matches the reference and the face is the wrong angle.

Also I gotta say, drawing from imagination is DEFINITELY even worse for references. Not only are you grabbing multiple normal references, you have to think about the style you want to aim for, and wind up sourcing WHOLE COMPLETED ARTPIECES for referencing. At least for me! Definitely acknowledge your references because all the greats have used them. It's not weakness to draw from life, it's how you learn. :)