"Tub Time" or "Drains"

I'm having trouble liking this particular drawing.

I'm self-taught (or like, Youtube taught me lol) and I have a lot of questions but not always the answer I'm looking for. Examples being "which way should this shadow go?" or "how do I shade more naturally in Illustrator?"

I think this looks cartoonish and just kinda bad, but it was also hard to figure out how to make it even as good as it is ahahaha. How do I take things to the next level?

<3