the mlighting and the palette on the tower are just great. otherwise, i agree with what others have said. still a nice piece though.

 Shadows and lighting... mhmm 

Thanks, everyone. I do like the atmosphere of this piece, so my mistakes with the clouds really annoy me. Maybe I'll go back and fix it some day.

I like this. Its beyond my level to critque right now but i think using night sky image as reference will greatly enhance its appeal.

 I like the feeling of that picture. Really nice. The boat is the best part. 

the tower is great

I like the tower.

Thanks for your comments, guys! Working on this piece really forced me to work on my cloud painting technique, and I can see that I still have a lot of room for improvement.

@Jabber : I can see your point considering the dithering technique. It doesn't really create that look of mist creeping up against the mountain top. I guess I could have done that better, even without dithering.

I really love the tower.  I think you should use that as the preview.  The clouds look rather too bobbly to me, though - they look more like treetops.  Nice atmospheric palette, too.

 The lighting from the fire is good. That weird mini-circle shading technique works well in the sky, but not so well with the cloud (?) against the rock, because the contrast between the colors is a lot more severe. It doesn't seem to create the right texture there. Not that I have a better idea necessarily. Overall it is good though.

 A little too detailed, yes.

clouds usually aren't that "blobby."

Otherwise, I really like it. i dont think the preview does it justice.

 It hardly seems a cloud, reminds me of something related to fire and smoke.