Sometimes you just gotta decide NOPE

So I've been working on an old illustration on and off that was meant for a contest, but was never handed in. However, I got myself stuck on it and I have no idea how to move past it which, I have to admit, is pretty unusual for me. So I decided to just move on from it because I know I can make better stuff from the confusion that came from this illustration.

Originally I had intended to do a black and white undertone and then put color on top, but once I got to the color part I had no idea how to color it. If I followed one color, the drawing suddenly looked bland and took away from the lighting. If I tried multiple colors that process took away some of the ethereal mood of the entire work. If I left the drawing black and white, it wasn't very interesting like that either. I thought about color accents, but...

I got stuck.

I also had issues with drawing stylized vs realism in this work. You can see that the figure's arm is some stylized thing while her hand is extremely realistic. There was some problems with the "lantern" looking like, well, a lantern with a fire brewing inside it and the tone confusion against the dark of the star dress and I think the smoke took away from the stylization I was trying to go for. Maybe if the smoke was more lineart rather than just form...?

However, I am very happy with how the figure's headscarf, star halo, mask, and the designs in the background came out. Haha, so basically I really like the top half of the drawing while the bottom half is just very...confused. I think the main problem that caused all the other issues to pop up was that I failed with lighting and tone direction which is something I have to keep in mind next time.

So, for now with all its mistakes, I'm dropping this illustration even though it pains me to do so (all that tiiiiime). 

Welp, I'll do better next time. 

(BTW, I really like the sketch better than the end drawing and that's painful, too, haha.)