Kerry, This is terrific! I think you did a great job w/ the chop -I like that you gave it a thoughtful meaning as well, my personal taste would be to mask back in the original eye. Maybe a little more room top and right.
Nice job Kerry! I do agree that the eye needs more "life". I use an illustration action that allows for adjustments on the final illustration layer using the opacity slider on that layer or erasing part of that layer altogether, so I will erase (eraser tool set at 50%) in the eye area and any other area that I want to be more defined. One negative thing about this piece though is, without the chop, I really don't get an "Asian" feel from it. In Chinese art, white, negative space is very important, as it allows the viewer to imagine what is there, as in your sky area. So maybe erasing some of the water would produce this feel? But, you do have the chop, so.........
Good work on the chop!! A chop is a relief carving in stone usually, and is dipped in red oily ink and stamped on the piece. Your white letters are not consistent with this method, as they should be the same color/texture as your canvas and this of course works better with a white or very light canvas. You could apply the chop to a seperate layer on top of your piece and then erase the white of the letters, allowing the BG layer to show through. This "chop layer" method also comes in handy if you want to vary the intensity of the red in the chop.