I love the composition of this image. The way she's stepping (she looks like a dancer, too--reaccuring theme in your pics--but definetly NOT a bad one!) and the dragon and eyes in the background rock. I think the dragon looks really awesome--I love the eye design with the red beady-type thing. Looks great! I also appreciate the colors you chose on this one. The greens really seem to suit it. I won't critique too much since, as you said, there is a newer image coming--but I will look forward to seeing it!

Cleaning up images is a pain, isn't it? I'm guessing you just have paint, huh... Adobe has a magic wand tool that would probably select just about all of the dirty white space that you seem to be trying to eliminate.