I must say sir, I am a Texan, and you captured our likeness pretty well. Bravo to that.
But some parts of the piece seem be left untouched. Be it, they are little parts of the piece, but the right boot seems plain and doesn't hold any of the blue shadows that are shown on the left boot. Also the champagne in the glass seems to be left a little too plain. I could understand this, however, as something that was meant to be left plain, as it would hold true for a cartoon liquid. However, in this case, I don't think it works very well. Maybe a little shine in the liquid could spice it up. Also, the hat seems a little plain at the moment, and it could use some sprucin' up.
***by the way, I just read the rest of the post, and I realized that you wrote that you are still not finished with the piece, which makes everything else I just said redundant....I'm a dumb ass***
Everything else definitely overshadows these tiny problems though. I also love the way the vibrant blues seem to aa very well with the lettering, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it new technique. Bull corn aside, I've been waiting too long to see something like this from you. Great job, and can't wait to see this baby finished. Awsome...