One secret to using colored pencils is to press hard to get a nice smooth texture. If you have all the detail and color you want in your picture, I suggets you go over the picture with a clear blender. If you find an art store that sells individual Prismacolor pencils they SHOULD have a clear blender pencil somewhere in the mix.

Check out the drawing titled Mexico in my gallery. The sunset sky behind the blue feathered snake looks like what you're trying to do in your picture. Trust me, do not be afraid to press hard when coloring. I do not have a clear blender myself, but I did use the white pencil to get smooth coloring. It pretty much smooshes the color into the texture of the paper so no white texture shows through.

I hope you will practice and consider using colored pencils more often in the future.

beautiful! I love the colors you used here, Very bright. This is pretty good for colored pencils =D