**EDIT***
heres what i hope is final. thank you very much everybody, especially for spurring me onto doing a full fledged background. i tried putting in a horse, honest, it just didn't fly. other than the background i also extended the elbow out even more and added in another leather flap to compensate.

anyway, sorry for the crazy updates, but im very very very pleased with how this turned out. after looking at it tomorrow on a pc monitor ill see if it needs any more leveling.

**EDIT**
ok, heres what i changed (other than adding a background)
extended elbow of left arm
fixed left foot, made it angled in ish
added hair
made head bigger
re-detailed helmet and other embellishments

thanks everybody for your suggestions thus far, they have helped immensely! also note that i have yet to find a scanner that will fit this one 100%. ill probably go to kinkos after payday and update this yet another time. all thats cut now is about .25 inches from each side and a half an inch from the top. in the full piece the upper arch extends farther up and is detailed. also, the vine work on the pillars is cut. Imo it doesn't subtract a huge deal, but i would still rather see this 100%

</edit>

phew! finally finished this puppy! i submitted the 'wip'/idea in my scraps, not sure how many of you watch those, but significant changes have been made, all of which i hope, for the better. in fact, most everything except the pose is new! since i actually had a light source in this picture (as opposed to my angel) i think the shading is much much better.

unlike other pictures i think ill update this one. im kinda playing around with adding a background or something... and theres lots of things my scanner 'found' that i want to fix shading wise. also i need to bring the elbow out of the left arm more, right now i think its a bit too short behind the shield, but that may just be me. also, the right arm was always giving me trouble. i wanted it held outward, but it threw off the top down look i wanted, so i hope the sword helps place the arm in 3 dimensional space

anyway, please give me all the suggestions you can!

.5mm mechanical pencil
kneaded erasor
small smudge thing... (how do you spell what there really called?!)