ESS: Looks Can Be Deceiving

Life looked to Death and asked
"Tell me, why is it that people love me, but hate you?"
And Death answered
"Because,
you are a beautiful lie
and I am the ugly truth"

Merry Christmas to !
Boy, this was a challenge. x.x When I saw these two characters, I knew I couldn't be satisfied with manipping only one.
Half way through making Grave Bells, I noticed in other art, he is grey, not black. So I was rattling my brain trying to think of how to make him more grey, but nothing worked, I tried making it brighter, using contrast, overlays, but he was staying black, stubborn boy. So I tried to cover it up with the dark lighting. xD Anyways, hope ya like it dear, and Merry Christmas!

I'll probably upload separate shots of each side later.
TOOLS:
GIMP 2.8
A mouse
NO critique please, I critique myself enough as is.

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Thank you to these lovely stock providers:
:::::::[link] [link] :[link]