Wonderful job with your first assignment.
You’ve accomplished the most important element of visual story telling. You’ve found your “focus”. I don’t mean that in the technical sense of depth, but instead “focus” as it relates to a visual story.
Your first image (i.e. the beast), is actually quite well composed. In fact, before I start discussing your “beauty” image with you I would like to point out one major accomplishment of your beast image. You’ve used a fairly large geographic space (especially compared to your beauty image), yet you’ve still managed to avoid amputation (i.e. the cutting of of primary or secondary elements with 1 or more of your photograph’s 4 walls). You’ve successfully avoided one of the most common mistakes in photography on your first assignment. Great work.
Your beauty image is well composed with more space on the side that the subject is looking and there is no “dead space” above the head. The eyes are also located roughly 2/3rds of the way up the frame which is perfect for portrait shots like this. As a general rule of thumb, try to avoid ever placing the eyes in the center of the frame. Placing the eyes 2/3rds of the way up the frame helps create a nice informal balance to the composition.
I also liked to see the texture drawn out by the side lighting. You’ve effectively isolated your main object away from the background through your use of lighting.
Overall, great work on your first assignment. I look forward to seeing what you accomplish next!