Very neat! :3 The lighting here is just plain awesome. My only critique is that the far ear needs to be fixed, seeing how it looks somewhat flat, and that the head should be tilted slightly more towards us, based upon his mouth. Otherwise, fantastic!

That's good. Thanks!

I noticed the warped head quite early in colouring, but I figured I could let it slip since it wasn't really important to the lighting. I didn't think about the ear though; Thank you! :)

he looks kinda scary o.o'
but very good lightings, looks pretty good ^^

Well, He gets a bit grumpy when you wake him from his 500-year slumber...
Don't worry though, I've taught him not to eat strangers.

And thanks! :)

Cool looking image! ^_^

I think you nailed it with stark contrast and vivid colors. The orange and blue works really well together as well as high lighting the curse with the green. I'm mesmerised by how the smoke is rendered, although random it totally looks like real smoke.

Reminds me of the Nyan Koi manga where the protagonist accidentally angers a cat spirit and gets a curse that gives him the ability to understand what cats are saying. If he doesn't fulfill the request of 100 cats he'll turn into a cat himself, which is not a good thing since he is allergic to cats. It is now turned into anime and second episode is out. :D

Thanks for the input! This whole piece was an experiment, so it's good to hear people's takes on it. The smoke was one of the things I learned from this, as well as some new blending techniques. I've only just recently started to play more with colour and unusual lighting, and I gotta say it's been a blast so far.

The manga/anime sounds interesting, as I'm both a fan of manga in general, and a cat lover... I think I'll check it out sometime. Thanks for the tip. :)