Aeris muerta

So, this is part of an ongoing day of the dead mashup series. I've recently gone from an outline drawing to flat colors, to adding a few gradients. I was running into problems with the flat colors, with defining things like locks of hair, clothing, and as you can see- flower petals. That's when I added the gradients. Recently worked at a place where this gradient use was done well and thought I'd give it a shot. I'm also wondering if there's anywhere to go on the background. It's currently a light to dark round gradient.