Help plz?

Long time no update. So the lovely and talented Paige Vickers is making a zine about Texas and I was asked to contribute. Turns out Texas has a lot of really sweet cowboy folklore, so color me inspired. I'm thinking I'm going to do at least three sexy cowgirl ladies (Annie Oakley, Slue-foot Sue, some saloon girls) and some cows. Maybe. Here's the first go; it's definitely an under-sketch and will be more detailed later on. I mainly wanted some input on the background.

Should I go with this one, which is partial and has some grass and some rocks and a little shrub tree (just in case you can't read my scribbles) or...

the simple rope border (yes, that's supposed to be rope), or come up with something else all together? Other ideas involved really long grass making curvy patterns. Or cacti. My attempts weren't so great but I'll post them if I make any headway. What do ya'll think? (any crit not pertaining to the background is welcome too)

Oh and btw!

And here's a small work in progress self portrait. Kind of like a bonus! I started it to use up some excess paint and will probably continue to do so - it's pretty much just to mess around with color and that sort of thing.
Here's a detail!

MASSIVE UPDATE!

I love how my last post is from JULY. So much stuff has happened since then it's really ridiculous. I realized I needed to update when my younger sister she'd been looking at my friends' blogs and would hire them before me, because they actually have new (and regularly posted) work. I guess my sister is more business savvy (and critical!) than I thought. Anyway, I've been doing a lot of work so here's some stuff from Visual Journalism with Warren Linn. It's all sketchbook and observation based.

Finally!

(Does anyone know how to flip an image in blogger? I can't figure it out.)

Here's some stuff from figure drawing last semester. I'm working on a new painting now and should have pictures of it soon. I just felt I really, desperately needed an update, bad image quality aside.

Some sculpture

I'm kind of scrambling for art so here are some things from last week's figure sculpture class. It was a two week full-body sculpture, from a model. It's since been torn down (that's the beauty of that class - you make something, destroy it, go home, and have no homework. Yesss.) Obviously I spent most of my time working on the face. You can tell, right? /sarcasm/  

Sketchbookery

Finally, right? These are just some pages from my current sketchbook(s). I think most of the faces excluding the cartoon-y ones were done from life, i.e. when I was bored during an Elements crit. I'll try to post some life drawing stuff soon. 

I'm really in the mood to paint right now. I don't have a project that calls for it or the time but I haven't used oils since last semester and I miss them. Cleaning them up - not so much. But you know. It's (usually?) worth it. I have to go be academically advised so later. :D