Hey Man, Looks good for your first model.

If you want to make his head look better have a look in the Topology thread in the WIP thread, its at the top as its a "stickey" thread.

as for him being "shiney" I would guess that youve applied materials on a blinn, have a play with the settings, reflectivity, eccrentricity and specular roll off to get a feel for what they do with test renders in between the changes.