As like any visual art, CG artwork starts with seeing things. Put these images next to yours and then try to answer the following questions as if you had absolutely no clue about digital art whatsoever: What does this image have that the other doesn't? You will eventually come up with answers like "here's a little highlight on the eye", "there's this backlight that highlights the silhouette", "the glossiness of the facial skin is varying not uniform", "there are tiny wrinkles around his neck". Once you've got this answer, you can turn on your technical mind again: how did those highlights get on that eye? Because some program put them there? No. Because the artist made the program put it there? Yes. Use the same arguments that come up over and over again whenever there's a "is Poser a toy" discussion: programs are just tools. Just like Poser doesn't have the "make art" button, Maya or 3ds max don't have a "make amazing art" button.