I've been wanting to do one of these for a while now.

The pic on the left was one of the first digital pieces I'd ever done in Photoshop that looked passable and wasn't heavy with filter abuse.

Over ten years later... only slightly less offense to the eyes! Still a lot of issues, but better than I was back then. Years of on and off practicing, a few classes and lots of observing and online learning from other artists helped a ton.