Drawing Style Criticism

[D]

I decided to buy a graphics tablet a while back as I have absolutely no mouse control, but it ended up lying in a drawer for a few months until last week, when I decided to mess about and use it with a paint package for the first time. I definitely really have a problem with proportions and drawing anything that has leaves really, but I was wondering if I could get some feedback on the basic style of drawing and features of this background in particular. Don't think it would function too well in most adventure games, but I love drawing mountains and end up trying to squeeze them in to every drawing.

It was supposed to be some sort of temple in China but I didn't really think it through very much.



So, any feedback, good or bad, would really be appreciated. Hopefully, with some advice, I'll be able to produce improved backgrounds that I'm comfortable with. 

[Andail]

Hm, overall it's not bad for a first try. It looks as though you've used a postcard for reference, from the colour scheme.
The biggest problem might that you've mixed a lot of techniques; you've got line-art around the temple, some pencil sketching going on in the grass and then I actually don't know what to call the way you've painted those mountains. Furthermore there are traces of effects/filters/textures, which I think you should avoid.

Edit: Added a little simple concept to show some stuff.


This is basically a desaturated, cutout version of your background. Then I improved your composition a little, by doing the following:
1. Placed the temple in the precise middle of the composition. Either place it there, or along some of the golden ratio points (roughly measure one third from a vertical side and one third from a horizontal side and put the "main" object of your composition there.) Never put your main object almost in the middle, as it will appear disorderly.
2. Added space above the temple. Another thumbrule: Either crop an object properly, or leave plenty of space above it. Don't barely make it fit, as it will appear to be squeezed in.

The reason I made it b/w is basically to show that the background has a lot of potential, but you need to re-do the colours. The cutout is to get rid of all the different strokes and lines you've got, to let you settle for one technique and go with it.