thanks bsfea and a very good question! :)
you somehow already said it; i feel quite a change in my approach in art in general, but i think it wasn't the art school allone which brought the change. we don't really have an illustration major (

), but the accumulated information and experience there (at the school) makes you think in other ways. hard to discribe...
in painting or drawing particular, for me it definintely was beeing here on cgpad and getting very good critique on the one hand, and practicing, thinking and practicing on the other hand (having fun was also important!

). that definitely opened my mind to other ways of painting^^
in those recent pencil studies i learned much about perceiving the object as a 3 dimensional shape; by rather creating the forms than copying them.
ok that all probably didn't help you much, as it is quite vague...

but yeah, practice practice practice...
well, haven't got that much done at home as i hoped to, i was busy visiting old friends.. but i got a few things and ideas, and also this little thing i did on my laptop, that why the colors are so crappy^^;
i'm still gonna finish this one off :>
edit: enough for today, continue tomorrow.