Again, I'm liking the progress and am looking forward to more detailing and various ideas...

If I may jump in on the side discussion here hopefully without offending anyone, I would commend Dango for trying to create something without references. Being original is something that I believe is of value in the industry. I.e. I don't think a portfolio of reproductions of fictional characters would sell...

I also understand the importance of references, but I think they should be used more for real-life things and for components of larger original pieces. I actually took hammer's picture to mean "look, it's been done before, you weren't being as original as you thought..." and it's true that it's quite hard to do something without something out there looking similar to it, whether you're aware of it or not.

Anyway, just my two cents...