Alicorn in Forest

I've started slowly working my way through my recent random sketch pages. FIGURE I MAY AS WELL FINISH SOME OF THEM. It's good for practice on color, paint technique, and backgrounds. THINGS I HAVE SOMEWHAT NEGLECTED. Anyway, alicorn by a creek. The background for this one's based off a photo I took, this time, so that's neat! Tried different things--a sorta simplified not-simple-at-all background (the rocks are all painted with three colors, did a quick trick to do some of the subtle reflections in the water, the bushes are simple pointalism of about five colors) basically, I did it mostly of simple solid colors, then tossed on a few layers to give it a bit of depth and atmospheric perspective. And then painted the shading on the unicorn the same way as in the beach picture. I dunno. MAYBE IT'S TOO STARK A CONTRAST, OR MAYBE IT WORKS, with the stylized but softly shaded alicorn and the hard-shaded background elements. I DUNNO. Just trying out different things. PRACTICE, WHOO!