need help desperately for graphic design painting

[clayrodery v.03]

Hey guys, pretty soon i'm going to be painting a fake album cover kind of thing, and this is the prelim skecth:
http://images.customize.org/category/aim/duke1-0_full.gif

Right now it looks like ass, and I need to really make it kick ass in the end, so I need any suggestions from you guys, especially you graphic design-oriented people

thanks everyone!

clay

[R_M]

You should check out some of the old BLU NOTE covers from the sixties, not seventies mind you.
there is this guy called Miles Reid (not sure about the name...) who made pretty much every single cover of that period for B.N.
Miles Davis covers aren't his best, you shold look at Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins
He knew how to play with fonts.
R_M