Innocent and Sinister

 How does the combining of opposite ideas make the artwork more interesting?

Innocent and sinister, in most cases, are considered opposites, contradictions, different ends on a spectrum. They are seen as not belonging together. An artwork containing both, can make someone look at it again or take a closer look, maybe look for a story around the image, find the reason for those elements to be together. I think contradiction/unlikely element pair ups are so interesting and love art that pair up things that don't seem likely. Even if there is no story or explanation, they're a ton of fun to just look at. 

How do artists appropriately use others' images and ideas?

Credit where credit is due. And with permission. And lots of respect for other's creation. You absolutely cannot use something simple because 'it's on the internet' due to this thing called copyrights. There are plenty of stock images out there that are free to use(to a point, some have different conditions so its always a good idea to check this out before using an image or asking the artist/photographer about anything that's unclear to you beforehand). 

I just like to use my own reference photos.

 Critique your work.  Explain what did and did not work about the piece and how you felt about it overall.

I had planned on doing something more watercolor-y  . . .ish. But then, as I was coloring it, got caught up with another idea and went with it instead. Don't get me wrong, I like the way it looks now, but I am curious how the original painting method would've looked like. The butterflies changed too-at first they were just going to be drawn on but, instead, I decided to add paper cut-outs. It seems more 'childish' and hopefully more 'innocent'. Had they been drawn on, I have no doubt that they would have been more detailed and realistic though. 

Overall, I like it. I wish I had made the dragon a different color but, then again, I'm not sure what other colors I would have made him instead. I had decided before hand what colors I was going to use-what I thought would look best with the way the other colors were placed. But I guess I'm still not happy with the colors exactly. 

The little galaxy flow thing at the bottom was a experiment, too. I was planning on doing something 'flowy' but then the colors reminded me of a galaxy so instead some white paint got splattered on it since I decided a galaxy would look neater . . .and be more fun to paint. 

Still wished the dragon was menacing and sinister. . . I'll just have to make some other creepy arts to make up for him, I guess.