sigh I promised myself that I’d leave this one alone, but I couldn’t 
I made a few changes with the composition/colour since what I posted in the WC forum. I think I like this version a bit better.
I liked the other one, but I also like this one better. One thing you might consider doing: Change the ground color a bit, and litter it with those petals.
God…it must be difficult to run yourself through without hitting your spinal column or ribs…OUCH OUCH OUCH…talk about a painful way to die. Perhaps there’s a special class Samurais take on suicide whereby they’re told exactly where to shove in order to cut the aorta…but I digress…your work is absolutely beautiful. Those who can’t paint, blend. But you can do both and I find that really impressive. As sad an image as this is…its also very stricking. The contrast between the character and the backgroud does a lot to highlight the isolation and anguish they must be experiencing. Blah blah…sorry to run on so long. Great work!
Hmm. The “suicide” aspect honestly isn’t the kind of thing I would hang on my wall, but nevertheless - I like Modron’s ground with petals idea. While a bit out of my taste, and perhaps a tad cliche - some bright red specks of blood on the ground would compliment your color scheme and contrast nicely in color and thought with the pure while petals (if they had been added on the ground).
Thanks for the comments, all. I don’t think I’ll be working on this any more, but they’re still appreciated.
Maybe it’s my monitor’s gamma settings making them look stronger, but there already are petals on the ground around his knees. I didn’t want to make them stand out too much lest it make the whole sakura thing even more cliched than it already is 
I thought I’d just explain some of the rationale for this too, since I touched upon it in the WC thread. The topic is Way of the Samurai, and although I’m not a very good or experienced painter, I’ve tried to express that. Being a samurai was all about pride, honour, dignity, etc. All part of the ‘typical’ Japanese cultural and artistic ideas of subtlety, minimalism, sophistication, wabi-sabi and so on. So there’s not stuff happening everywhere, he’s not screaming in agony, and there’s not blood all over the place. A samurai taking his own life is not horrible or tragic, it’s an expression of honour and dignity even until the bitter end.
(edit: thanks also to theeth and basse for their comments in #blenderchat)
cheers