My first fully colored, rendered model of a penguin. Without the mirror modifier, I don’t think it would come out like this. It was also my first time using blue lighting to give the penguin a look as if it were still in Antarctica.
You say that as if it was kind of a shame to use the mirror modifier 
Well, it’s a part of Blender if would have been really stupid if you hadn’t used it…
The penguin looks sweet 
Maybe it could use a bit more detail, espeacially on its beak. And has it got feet, too?
I’m new at Blender. The lighting for some reason wouldn’t pick up on the bottom beak lip and that was a real bummer. I wanted to put feet on it but I ended up not doing it for some reason.
I would love to learn how to make hair, fur, cracks, and textures on Blender. I think it looks like a videogame character. LOL.
I think it looks too sweet.
Nice penguin. You could try lowering the specularity a bit, and for the beak, maybe you set it to shadeless? Or you could try using environment lightning.
Do a search for 3 point lighting. There are even scripts and scenes you can download that have a light rig already set up for you. But a tutorial on how to set up 3 point lighting or lighting in general would be best, its fairly easy to do.
Keep up the good work.
Blend on, and blend well!!!