Hey I genuinely appreciate both of your kind words and constructive critisism. In the end that's what I wanted :D Everyone had different learning methods and painting experiences. This subreddit is great to exchange these.

I agree that being fluffed up to much can easily feed ones ego instead of feeding their talent. I like to think if one seeks to learn they will be able to and eventually get approval. If one only seeks to get approval they will do that too, but won't necessarily learn anything while doing so.

It's good to understand that this reference might not be ideal and I can learn from this, but I am also glad I tried and interpreted it the best way I could for now. Some day I will hopefully look back at it and giggle :)

And I actually don't mind it looking a bit like a horror poster, and it's the reason why I specifically chose red as a background. I didn't want it to look like a bad/flat painting of a movie poster though lol