Welcome to Gaia! ::

o_o omg I haven't posted anything in years....

But critique... Well in general, I'd suggest that you practice some figure drawing and still lifes of fabric draped over various shapes (or even how they fold over the human body). Even if it's not "anime/manga" style, it really really helps when you actually go to draw manga. It helps with poses and such ;D Imo, it's best to study things from a realistic point of view then do anime, because if you can do realism you can do anime easily.

But overall, looking good ;D (btw, if you're getting serious about drawing manga and your manga style, don't get stuck in one style. Experiment with different ones or you'll get stuck in that one style. Happened to a lot of my friends, and three years later they are complaining about it D: You'll eventually find your own unique style that way too biggrin )

i think you should practice on human figures.
Do you have a scanner?

Using irl references is nice, and a lot of people suggest it so I bet it is good practice. A couple things that I practice specifically, though are...

1. Often, I will copy different pictures of anime styles that I like and would like to be able to draw well...copying is definitely not a bad thing, and I find that it helps when studying different styles because as you copy the artwork, you draw each of the little pieces that makes that style unique. This way I can learn many different styles of drawing anime and can then fuse my favorite parts from each to make my own special style ^^. P.S. when copying something, pay attention to the different parts that you might struggle with if you were just winging it and drawing from your mind...I find that I concentrate on the forms of hands + arms a lot because making the hands and arms move naturally for the character is difficult for me XD I am getting better, though.

2. To improve anime-drawing skills, look at anything in real life and then try to draw it on paper with as few of lines as possible that are needed to communicate what it is you are drawing. This helped me a lot particularly with drawing anime hands (I know it sounds ridiculous but for some reason I can draw great highly detailed non-anime hands in almost any shape pretty easily but struggle with the simple-shaped anime hands.) This helps because often, especially when drawing irl hands, you can draw all the knuckle lines and shades that make a hand look like a hand. When anime hands are drawn, they are usually just the outline of the hand (often times not even fingernails are drawn). When concentrating on drawing detail-oriented spots like those knuckles, it can be difficult to get the message through without drawing lines and stuff ^^.

Idk if I am giving bad advice, but it helped me out...not the best anime artist here, but people say I am pretty good and I actually don't draw often...if I did more, I would probably be a lot better, so I think I am giving decent advice ^^. Good luck.