Secret Santa: Taylee by
KingGigabyte
It's a good image. The colors are nice and the textures, especially around the hat are nice.
Changes I would make or work on would be to use less textures and more brush strokes. So, even if you have used just brushes it isn't the same as the actual stroke. It's something artist refer to as "The Hand of the Artist".
For example, when I look at the piece I notice all the individual hairs, fibers, and fur tufts. This actually makes it less realistic, and more artificial feeling. I'd suggest working with more of the creature's (or person's, if you're working with humans) shadows. basically to do realism you'd have to go back to high school art practices, and really look at the shapes in light, medium, and dark tones.
What you're doing in the hair is working, just keep at it! (I think I know the kinds of tutorials you looked up, and I've used the same strategies too.) Fur is ... weird. we always want to draw each little strand but it takes the fun out of it unless you have all day. For fur, I tend to go in small areas, and play with lights vs. darks, to achieve the look of tufts. you don't have to do every single tuft you see, just the parts that create the shape underneath the fur.
