So this is my WIP for an avatar type graphic to use on various sites, where I use the name Cephei, I'm super happy with how it has turned out so far, but I wanted to get some actual critique on it to see if I can make it even better.




I also wanted to know what people thought of my use of the dithering for the darker purply colour that I used to give the scene a bit more depth. I feel like its not a super noticeable contrast between the two colours, so I may have wasted my time there when a simpler dithering would have been good.

But my real question is if it counts as plagiarism, because I heavily based the shapes I used there off of this?

I think this needs more contrast. You need a darker space. I understand not using black for artistic purposes but a darker looking space would really help sell the space feel. Dithering looks weird on the closer planet. Maybe more cloud and mountain detail instead? Look at real pictures of space and pictures of planets taken from space. I'm pretty sure planets have some sort of atmospheric distortion or atmospheric boundary that wraps along the circle of the planet.