you could put in a skin tone for the people behind or make it to where they have brown robes covering their faces and then to help keep the focus on the foreground try blurring it out of focus so the eye of the view focuses on the character in the foreground or if they are far away enough you could introduce atmospheric perspective into the piece to really separate and desaturate the crowd of people.
I would also think about the backstory behind why they are there if you are showing a more menacing side of them what is making them show their claws out in the open? as opposed to if they are just strolling through a market and they look calm/confident without a threat is there a reason to show hostility in the first place? excited to see the finished piece when your done. 
I like your ideas, some of them I considered myself, however I'm done with this piece as of now - mainly because I want to have enough time to work on the Vivi Art challenge in the discord group.
I will keep you your feedback in mind though.
Understandable you have to move on at some point right. I can't wait to see what you come up with for the Vivi Art Challenge in the discord. 
10 days later
alright I'm back, I've been busy with lectures and the Vivi fanart challenge. I had a few ideas in mind but i liked the one i selected below. I've made some progress on the painting but it still needs work. Let me know what you think.
I wanted to post this before progressing further in case anybody had any feedback.
Looks awesome! The only thing I could say would be the background needs some more detail because the greyish green works but it still feels sort of empty maybe make some thicker trees or hint at more trees being in the background. overall looks great, nice colors as well.
Done. Onto the next one.
I really like the palette of the second piece you posted. The dark greens of the environment go really well with the oranges of the second horse! Good job, Handro!
thanks I wasn't sure if it worked with all the dark greens around it.
24 days later
its been a while, i wasnt able to draw or post anything because i was upgrading my pc. I just recently got back into the groove of things. this past week. I have spent some time looking at some tutorials people have recommended in the past and just trying to learn new stuff in general. anyways instead of trying to jump back into what i was doing prior to stopping i decided it would be best to brush up on some basic concepts.
nice skull/head studies, you did a good job on the more extreme angles as well
Thanks @Kosmonaut I've recently found myself deviating from the skull form in my faces so i figured this would help m refamiliarize myself with them again.
