aaaargh i forgot to draw the buttons and pocket on that stupid vest

i'll be getting on that now.

I don't have my tablet with me, so this is just going to be words this time.

First, about your picture:
1) If you still have it, I'd like to see various stages of your work and also a screencap of your coloring process so I can see it and give you feedback on that, but from what I can see you're restricting yourself to various shades white and black for highlights and shadows. That can work in some circumstances, but I would encourage you to experiment with more tools, layering effects, and colors.
2) Black sclera + black irises = I can't make out his eyes at all. I would suggest making the irises red so that they can contrast.
3) Are you planning to shade in the rest of the picture in addition to drawing the buttons and pockets? With only the head shaded, the picture looks unfinished.
4) Your character's head is a little bit too big for his body. Adult males generally have shoulders two to three times wider than the head. Also, although he's standing at an angle, the two sides of his body should be a little bit more even.
5) The ears are too high up in his head, even for pointed ones. They should line up with the corner of the eye at the top and the bottom of the nose.

Second, some teal dear about your oc's character design:
1) His face is super generic (having the sides of his face obscured by hair doesn't help, nor is it a particularly practical hairstyle given that he's supposed to be wearing a balaclava at all times). If you're not planning to have your character look like the Spy, I suggest you google something like "male face shapes", "male head shapes", "male nose shapes" etc.
2) His facial proportions do not make him look like an adult male. Again, I suggest you use google to help you reference what average real-life proportions and then work from there--and don't forget that TF2's dudes tend to have exaggerated jawlines.

thank you, dotchan! i'm sorry this came so late. a little after i posted this, i found out that i had to get a lot of papers in order for some bureaucratic bullshit. i appreciate your input a lot and when i'm finally able to sit down and have time to work on this (it's a huge canvas with other stuff, i just posted him for that moment) i'll try to take screenshots of the coloring thing for you. tf2 has been a wonderful thing because as generic as it does look, i'll admit, it's a damn sight better than the straight-up animu and mango i was doing. the game really got me into drawing seriously and i really appreciate your honest feedback!

he's an oc, obviously, as you said. imagine how silly he'd look with all that hair under that mask! haha, i cosplayed spy once and it was hell getting mine flat enough to do so. i had hair down to my mid-chest, ugh. but it got kind of hard for him to continue wearing the damn thing when horns happened. and goodbye nice suits when the wings came. anyways, tldr, i'll be posting more when i've gotten my legal issues (passport and such) taken care of. again, thank you for your concrit! i'm sorry to bump this back up, but i'd figured i'd go ahead and say 'hiatus until i get my shit together'. wish i had a miss pauling to do this for me. i really want to be active here -- i've been itching to draw again, but i've just been so preoccupied.

i think sage is how you keep it from bumping more... i neglected to answer one of your questions: no, at the time i hadn't finished shading. i tend to do my drawings in parts if i get bored with one thing or another, so it's not very consistent. and thanks for the color tips. i'm only just beginning to work with palettes and it feels like a nightmare dealing with this tablet instead of my markers, haha. anyways, i'll post an updated version of this (likely with the rest of the lines done) with some progress shots so you can see how i do the thing. looking forward to it!