Do any of these look like a fire horse? It's my second attempt and I think I'm getting closer. Critique is definitely welcome!

Original image

The dark center is kinda throwing me off, thoughts on eliminating it?

HMH I agree with you. Can you lighten it two shades & see what happens? without losing what you have now of course.

I think they both look like fire horses!!

It looks like a fire horse, its so cool to

I will lighten it and then post an update

Does blurred or unblurred look better?

I think if you blurred the second version you would be super close. The stark white outlines in the upper version are unnecessary. Maybe take a look at the fire itself for inspiration and refernce. The edges are soft, they're not hard or regimented. They fade out gently. Try to imitate that with the edges of your horse. If you add some smoke type smudged to the edge of the horse as well, I think that would be a super neat boost. Wishing you the best of luck!!! <3

Couple of things, both versions are exactly the same, one is just the blurred version on the other. I definitely plan on adding some more fire-y smokey bits, that's the next step. I removed the bright parts, but then the horse looks bloby, so I'm not sure. But I did lighten the bottom of the barrel and I think it looks less floaty. Thank you all for your help!

You should have the horse look like it's standing in the fire rather than floating above it. Unless you are going to add a bg. (: