So even though both don't necessarily feel done for me and I wish I had had a bit more time to polish things a bit more I'm glad I participated. Really enjoy this art community, big thanks to the cubebrush crew for providing interesting challenges. Also, thanks to everyone for your feedback; it was a pleasure seeing everyone's progress. I'll hopefully be around here and there; plan on making a sketch blog ^_^ but I do have to ghost out for a bit, taking the MCAT in May.
One final note:
This is how I had to paint this morning.
EDIT: Okay maybe I'll have time to polish the illustration a little since we get extra time. ^_^ Yay.