Dying to protect

I won't go into the details as to the symbolism or its meaning. That's for the viewer to interpret.

It might not exactly be up to par with my latest works, but I kind of lost motivation halfway through. I also decided to challenge myself and didn't use my blending tool. Not once! the reason for this is because I tend to over blend things and those that know me will also know that I hate being dependent on a tool. So yeah, you can basically see every single brush stroke that isn't covered by an other.

I do feel like I improved on the face... maybe? It also was my first time, I believe, Actually drawing blood in one of my illustrations. Not sure if I should flag this as mature content. :/

anyway, hope you guys like it and as always: comments and constructive criticism are more than welcome!

non-related side note: This also means I'll be starting on my first "monthly knight" using 3 random words from the list mentioned in my journal:
Monthly Knight designs!Greetings fellow deviants.
I've had this idea for a while now to combine my passion and you guys in an interactive sort of way!
How it works
From now on, I'll try to design a knight at least every month. However, I'd like to add some randomness. That's where you guys come in. If you guys have any creative ideas, post them here. It can be a concept you want to see or even just a few random words. I'll write them down in a text document and give them a number. Then I'll use a random number generator to choose a few to design a knight around those words.
Everyone can participate and I'll be very grateful if you do!
So just write a few random words down here like for example: "fire, blade master, Jellyfish" And I'll use those at random to design a knight every month!
Word counter: 47 -- Keep 'em coming!
Everyone should be able to come up with a few words, so be sure to write them in the comments.
The first knight

I'm still looking for more interesting words for the designs, so be sure to write some down in the comments of the journal. Everyone can participate and I'll be very grateful if you do! As to what the 3 words were for this month's (Juli) knight, I won't spoil anything. All I will tell is that I already decided that it will be a female which is pretty rare in my gallery recently.