Yeah...showing someone else what your thought process behind a certain step or action was, is not always easy.
But I think with critiques and such a forum like this might really help, plus I'm sure you'll find a bunch of people who you can exchange critiques with.
I personally don't rely on community pages for critiques that much anymore, as most comments I got on dA were usually "wow that's cool" anyhow, but I'm glad to have a few people on IM who I can always bug for a critique while working on the piece.
Another good way to learn I find is to look at images I like, and trying to figure out why I like them, and what works so well in them. That helps me heaps, too!
