WOW ... those last few comments went totally over my head. I now feel REALLY old! Now ... where'd I put my pen and cassette tape?
What is this casette tape of which you speak. I shall go and listen to my gramaphone.
Loads of good advice here.I would have suggested buying some junk minis of ebay to have a play with but now I have seen your painting I can see you don't need to do that.
The next bit of advice I would give you is buy good brushes ... but you have already done thtt.
Next paint neatly ... simple techniques done neatly will give you nice minis.
Next always, always thin your paint ...probably thinner than you would imagine making any kind of sense. Several thin coats of paint will give better results than one thick one. Even painting a base coat of the same colour I will often do a couple of thin coats rather than try and cover it in one go.
Next play ... experimant ... play with washes, play with dry brushing. Layering and blending highlights is the way to go for incredible paint jobs but you can go a long way with base colours washes and drybrushing. for most parts of the model.
Last thought from me. .... faces and bases. These are the bits of the model that you notice the most. Put most of your efforts into painting the face really well and doing some nice basing. Even standard minis look good with a good face and a good base.
Then as someone else said ... paint the minis you love and want to play with....or you will end up with a lot of half painted miniatures.
Good Luck.