What to do

So, I'm really having problems with this piece. I really just have no idea what to do with it, and I'm not a big fan of the way it is now.

I'm not sure what I should do with the background. I can't decide if I want to leave it like this, or if a more solid background would go better with the way I painted the dog.

Also, I was originally planning to add color to this with acrylic glazing, but it turned out really close to the natural colors of the dog anyway. Should I leave it the way it is, or go ahead and add the color?

Overall I am having a very slow start. Hopefully this will go more smoothly in the future!

Enjoy this novel that I wrote about my concentration idea

So, my sketchbook picture turned out to be kind of relevant after all... I'm thinking about doing animal portraits for my concentration. I'm not totally sure about it, and I have the feeling that I'm going to wake up tommorow and wonder what the heck I was thinking (hopefully not...). I don't mean cutesy kittens or anything, more like realistic portrait-type paintings or studies-- kind of like that dog Kelsey did for her summer project, or some of the "pet projects" in the AP gallery online? I have always loved animals, so it would be something I could get into. One painter who I really like who does animals a lot is Franz Marc (the pictures are two of my favorites of his), so maybe I could try doing something in his style..... I still have some more thinking to do, obviously, but right now I think I'd like to do something along these lines. Suggestions to help pull this idea together would be great, thanks!

Image Update

I haven't started my concentration yet, so all I have to post right now is this image, which is my latest sketchbook drawing. It's charcol of my cat sleeping on my bed. Yeah... my sketchbook isn't really the most exciting thing in the world... oh well.