youre right, the rendering is generally pretty rushed as thats the stage i generally enjoy the least so i try to just make it look "decent enough", maybe if i incorporated / imagined more actual environments into my stuff i could have more believable bounce lights etc....
the only few ones where i actually tried rendering them in more interesting / "believable" (as believable as cartoony stuff can be) ways were these


but yeah even on those, as you said, im following pretty basic lighting schemes, so i definitely see how i could benefit from thinking about the actual light sources more.... its just that thats so much work
nevertheless, thank you very much for your feedback, really really appreciate it!!