Attached Link: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/E320M/PRB.html

I'm not much of a 2d person, but it seems like there's three areas fighting for attention - the lower left with the highly detailed water lilies, the fairy + unicorn, and the sky. The placement of the ranges of mountains is also disturbing, as the lowest/nearest ones seem visually to be further away because of the fog. The two figures look like sprites that have just been tacked on top of an existing scene, they're not merged with it. The water lilies are in very close-up detail, while the grass on the right-hand side is fuzzy and kinda makeshift. Something about the whole image sent me off googling for the attached image, to see how Millais handled the foliage. He suppresses a lot of detail and limits his colour pallet, and uses light to focus attention on the areas he wants you to look at. It's not a great version of the painting - in fact I think it may even be flipped horizontally - and is very bleached out, but it's worth looking at how he handled the foliage so that it doesn't distract from the main area of interest, while still giving a very rich, detailed overall look. I feel there's too much green in the fairy's costume. Instead of intensifying the vibrancy of the red, it's fighting it. If there was a lot less green it would intensify that red better IMO. For the cover of a book about unicorns, the fairy seems very dominant visually. For a book cover, would you not need to have the picture in portrait format, with dead areas for text? Your text is going to have a hell of a job fighting for attention against those bright colours. But........I do think the brightness will make it stand out in a display. Sheesh....it's never wise to ask for brutally honest crits, you'll be hit with sledgehammers from all sides :^) ....and here's another link just for the fun of it, the tapestry showing the story of The Hunt of the Unicorn [ Links to the images](http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&q=hunt+unicorn+tapestry&btnG=Search)