It's a pleasant scene, but very flat. Composition actually isn't that bad at all. Rendered style is uninteresting and amateur. The font isn't pixel art, it's auto anti-aliased vector letters, can't read it well enough anyway . Lighting not dusky enough for the sun being halfway set, it is dusk I assume, and not morning. Your crazy texturing is very distracting and complicating; way too noisy. Fishing pole string seems to have been starched in the wash - much too light and pulls to much attention. Sun is too big, if it were that close to the earth we'd all be crispy fish sticks. Pillow-shading galore - boring to look at as well as inacurate. The kid's form is way off, his neck and head are elongated in an odd alien way, he needs more contrast, his shadow doesn't match the sun's directional light source. The scene as a whole is not believable. Water is very bland, it shouold have some shimmering reflecions from the sun in it. Colors consist only of monotonous ramps, also boring. Even your border is offset wrong. Don't be discouraged Jates8, see what you can fix and re-post whatchya got!
EDIT* just read Squiggly's updated post. Yes, make it smaller, and yes, work with pencil and paper first. Consider traditional drawing a prerequisite to most anything digital - like learning to walk before you can run.