West and North WIP

I've been working on this piece for a week now, and it's taking so long because I'm currently taking this crash course in composition.  I'm learning so much about how to create an image and how to balance things.  It's getting me to think about how I create images and it's heavy on the mind.

I finally finished the sketch and will go on to painting it in photoshop.  I tried to take in some of the things from the course into this image, so hopefuly as a composition, it works.

Included here are the sketch and some preliminary work, since it's the type of thing that interests me so much:

I'm also hoping to do a revamp of my blog.  It's rather default looking, and I think I should do something about that.  Look professional, and all that. Look forward to it. :P