Mane Event

As a portrait of MLP:FIM villain Mane-iac the image's ORIGINALITY relies on its VISION , IMPACT and TECHNIQUE alone to be distinct.

The vision is well executed but doesn't take risk to do something innovative or meaningful in the work to otherwise make it stand out or make it appealing to others outside of the MLP FIM bias. (But as a work of MLP fan-art it grasps my ultimately biased favor.)

The impact is relatively weak however the usage of contrast between the main image objects and the darker background allude to a great distance between the two areas and that creates a since of a scale difference, taking that into consideration the villain's hair appears to be absolutely monstrous. That being said there is something to be taken from the work as a whole as it seemingly attempts to define the character portrayed.

Technique is solid from the foundations to the coloring, it makes great use of colors and contrast to create a focal but doesn't make effective use of highlights to support the light source in all layers of the work.
The blur does emphasize motion but doesn’t seem to be there for any purpose other than to emphasize the focal. I'd consider this poor use as the blur alludes to motion when combined with the green motion lines but in the work is only used to farther emphasize the already functioning focal by effectively removing the rest of the canvas from the attention of the viewer rather than actually directing attention. However the point of focus is simultaneously enforced and preserved by the blur, directing your attention towards the face by the contrast between the two areas creating an effective focal in the intense expression. Also yes the direction she is looking is affecting the attention of the viewer as well however there is nothing there to be seen or focus on causing attention to travel into otherwise negative space. (And I am using "negative" loosely to emphasize a lack of substance)
(Since the idea that this image lacks substance is in itself biased since as we can all see the image remains pretty consistent I will omit that from my objective argument but I'll leave it in the passage because I want to touch on it again later on.)
The blur makes it impossible to tell there even are details in the hair and they would otherwise go undiscovered without the WIP images to show they do exist. Negative space is useless unless it emphasizes or contrasts and already existing asset, In this case the negative space is a compliment to the hair but doesn’t have a strong affect because of the object(s) between them. (note real negative space is consider anything canvas colored or)
My onions, yes opinions are like onions, not for everypony, layered and usually unsavory!

In my opinion using that orb from the episode as a secondary focal and the hair as motion lines towards it from her face could make a light source, point of focus for the character and help balance the image but that would change what the image is attempting to define and practically alter every aspect of it. I’d simply say the focal asset in the image is not presented strongly enough to have a high impact. Maybe making the eye stare at the viewer and having all lines move towards the focal would enhance it.
Overall I do like the image and the artist is obviously great at what they do but its strongest asset is its foundation and detail, I’d have to say the potential was locked away in frame 6 of the WIP. Perhaps the vision and the technique came to a fork. I enjoyed looking at this picture for over 2 hours as I analyzed it and think that it’s a good piece of work, I encourage the artist to continue making pictures like it and I hope he takes from his own work as much as everypony else does! Thankyou, N3-P
Disagree with something? Feel free to add your critique to the work!