The Ali'i Warrior- New Book Cover

I recently finished a book cover for author Jon Shute, who is self publishing his new book "The Ali'i Warrior. Kudos to him for his hard work in getting his book out (he's almost there), I'm sure it's been a lot of work and a lot of money. A second Kudos (and a thank you) to him for wanting to get a proper illustration for the book cover, as opposed to finding some clip art or filling the cover with REALLY BIG TYPE. There was a lot of mental energy into deciding what would go on the cover- whether to pick a specific scene, a collage of images, or something symbolic. The end result is sort of a scene from the book (though not quite) with a lot of important symbols from the book. Enough with the talk, though, here's the cover (sans the type):


I consciously tried to add more color than I am usually wont to do. It's strange that sometimes I try to do so and I end up muting them too much all the same.