Quote (DeadlySanity @ Jul 18 2012 01:28am)
Any chance you have any tips for practicing properly? Or maybe things you wish someone mentioned to you when you were first starting out? 
After looking through all this I have a sudden urge to learn to smudge! 
Don't give up, have patience. Work either on a large canvas which you scale down later or zoom in while smudging.
If you're using a mouse like me, make sure to have a 1:1 sensitivity ratio. Lowering your mouse DPI might help you as well to get more control over you cursor.
And the most important one: Learn to analyze psd files properly and study pochy's psd packs.