Welcome to Gaia! ::

actually i kinda like the brush lines...gives it a very impressionistic feel. i guess it depends on what you want to do with this piece; tighten it up or leave it loose and painterly?

i do agree that it looks a little dull. you could add more colors for a start, like making the water darker and giving it a different texture than the sky. you could add some saturated oranges and reds where the sun is setting and have it gradually turn into the blue that you've got now (and possibly making it even darker). and tossing in some violets too will help in making it look less drab (it'll make your bright colors brighter by having some darker colors to have it contrast against).

maybe something like this for the basic colors for the sky?

-sunset

-dusk

you could also extend your canvas to the right more, if you're thinking of leaving the ship that small. especially if you want to capture the vastness of the ocean. having the piece be a typical 4:3 ratio looks really boring and static (kind of like if you're watching lord of the rings on fullscreen...doesn't look as epic as watching it on widescreen in order to see more of their environmment). it'll also give you more room to play around in and you won't feel limited and cramped.

or instead of having the canvas extended horizontally, you can instead extend it vertically, if you want to stress emphasis on the clouds. i guess it really depends on what you want to work on the most; the water or the clouds.

here are some examples if you'd like to follow and look at for reference concerning colors...

-river valley

there's a lot of contrast in this piece, like having the mountains in the foreground look really dark in comparison to the river and the sky where there are brighter and saturated colors. probably even went all the way to white at the very top of the sky too, not to mention added greens and blues to make the warmer colors stand out more.

-thing

same concept with this one. i like how even though most of the piece is done with pretty bright colors, just having dark forms really give it weight and contrast to still make it feel moody.

and for the ship you could also have fun with the colors, like adding some rim light to the sails as it's catching the last of the suns rays. and also giving the sails some reddish hue to make it look translucent. and maybe possibly adding some bright reflections on some areas of the ship, or having a light or candle lit on the ship to give it some atmosphere (then you can play around with adding colors for reflections and bounced light).

-ship

jujika's version of her ship is pretty roughly colored...she didn't really go back to tighten some areas, because the colors she picked really pushes the concept home. so i think having it sorta rough and unrefined has it advantages too.

Brush lines can do that, but to me, using the pre-made brush lines just looks fairly tacky. sweatdrop