4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Death

((EDIT: Does ANYONE know how to make the fullview picture smaller? o_O My pictures are pretty big and I'm used to dA which sizes it down for you...Help for the new girl pwease T_T

EDIT2: Thanks to the first two commenters, I figured out how to resize the picture. Thank you guys!))

After such a warm welcome with that Jirachi picture (71 favs in only one day! That's a milestone for me, lol), I figured I'd upload one of my newer pictures. I actually just finished this a couple of minutes ago.

I'm actually pretty proud of this mainly because I was trying to apply real artistic methods/theories. It took me about a week or two to do. Like the title says, its one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; this one is Death. Added the Bible quote for kicks. I drew it for the theme picture of an auction I'm holding on Gaia (BID ON IT!!! When its open...).

When I started, I actually had another picture drawn and was coloring it but suddenly, I just wasn't feeling it. So I sat for a while thinking "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and decided to look up some tutorials on composition. Came up with an idea to have the horseman in the right with those "important corners" in the Golden Thirds or something like that and the fire on the left...then I figured why not study some color theory? So I remembered orange and blue were opposites on that wheel thing, and figured a blue sky would contrast well with the orange flame and make it stand out pretty good. The blue sky was pretty dark...like a storm...so I added a lightning bolt for kicks. Tried to make the negative space in the left equal to the positive space on the right...I wonder if it worked since I still don't know what negative space is! I did the fire while looking at a BLEACH poster by Tite Kubo and while listening to the song "Inside the Fire" by Disturbed - that had to be one of the funnest times I had drawing, lol!

First time drawing a horse! I've never seen a horse close up, never rode a horse, never even studied horses. So I looked up pictures. First attempt at this version ended up with this fucked up looking dog thing, lol. Figured the horse might look pretty threatening if it was rearing, so I looked up a reference picture for that.

Those crazy little things around her are supposed to be spirits, since "Hades" is supposed to follow Death. They didn't turn out nearly as awesome as they did on the lineart, lol. I based them off of will o' wisps that are believed to be spirits and such. I was intending for them to look like skulls inside of blue flames but I had to abandon that idea 'cause it wasn't turning out right .

I messed up the color of Death's cloak while trying to edit it to look less green than I first had it...and I think her left arm is too long...I love lolita, especially on grim reapers, lol. Its probably cliche and played out, but I couldn't help myself. I tried to make her colors black-green, red, and white, the colors ofter associated with death; but a lot of the "black green" ended up bluish...it ticks me off.

Anywho...I'd like to know if I applied said artistic theories correctly so polite, in-depth criticism is strongly encouraged (not the blunt: "you did this and this wrong, so study this. bye" shit 'cause that doesn't help anyone). I'm teaching myself so I have no clue if I am or not. I tested it on someone who doesn't know much about art, and he said he really liked it and the colors I chose for it. If the untrained eye likes the color blends, then I must have done something right, lol.

I'll probably try drawing the other 3 horsemen just 'cause I can. Maybe I'll try to put them all together for a panoramic picture..............maybe.

Sorry for the long description; Enjoy and critique!