Why don't you post one of the pictures you did of Mireille or Mistral? Poses are hard, but I'm sure if you post something everyone here could give you some suggestions to help you improve them.
By the way, photoshop's kind of expensive. The only reason I was able to get it is because my mom was able to get a discount from one of those teacher supply sites, and even then I think it was over a hundred dollars. However, its a long term investment, so after using the program for a year it doesn't seem like that much.
Thanks for the comment :)