Skull Art Test

So I had a Graphic Design Art test for a motorcyle/auto design company recently. It ate up a bit of my day yesterday so I thought I would post it. Overall I am pretty pleased with it and like the end result. (I went with a wolf skull)

First I did some quick rough sketches and a concept for the final design once I found an orientation I liked. 

In Illustrator I made a vector version of the design, and added a little more to make it more interesting, (drip from the eyes, nose and mouth).  Once I finished the main design based on the initial concept (the left at the top), I tooled around looking at different colors and gradients to see what worked best.

Overall I think with the vector designs the red gradient seemed to look the best.  I converted the file to a psd to see if some touch up in Photoshop would be worthwhile.

Once in Photoshop I applied a pavement texture from one of the free texture sites online and did some brushwork to add some detail. I think this could still use a bit of work but I'm happy where the design is. Too much more fiddling might be a bit much and I would hate to guild the lily, or skull I guess. Oftentimes with a design it's good to know where to stop before overdoing it.