You can measure life models more accurately with a pair of proportional dividers.
Hold the tool at arm's length and use the large arms to take an optical measurement.
The small arms will produce short measurements in direct proportion to the large measurements. You can transfer those small measurements to your paper.
By sliding the fulcrum, you can adjust the reduction ratio to better suit the scale of your drawing.
The typical CG light only loses luminosity as it rolls off from direct to oblique illumination. That can look dull.
Here's a technique for introducing angle-based hue falloff into the light for a richer look.
I picked up Alias Sketchbook Pro 2.0 at the SIGGRAPH promotional price of $149, and I'm quite happy with it.
It's marketed for "sketching" but if you design your own pressure-sensitive brush and use the method I outline in the image above, you may find the software can achieve painterly blends.
