really good start in here Lusion. i have that same Feng Zhu dvd! hes great at simplifying his methods, but he still makes it look way too easy when hes coming up with those amazing enviro thumbs. but then again i suck at doing environments, so maybe i just dont have the vision for them.
those mecha silhouettes look amazing, very intricate. im no good at mechas, but it seems like your jumping from the silhouette into tight rendering before you have established a more basic blocking in of forms and light. if i were you, and this is just my own thought, i might try to loosely block in some shapes and forms using just a slightly lighter color than your silhouette color. like a very dark brown or blue, then once your fairly happy with how the shapes look, and you have a more clear idea of how the robot will function, then you can go in and define the major light source(s) with a more finished look.
andree wallin has some great speed painting videos on you tube, check him out, its really cool to watch how he constructs some of his robots. best of luck,
-Nick
