The Nonstop Knight Pet competition is on Twitter and instagram. You have to tag the developers so they can see it. Newgrounds is for Jazza's competition. Looks good though. :)

You should try for the open! Your art is amazing! The colors and lighting flow into each other expertly and are well defined. You'r linework is strong, clean and bold. Really the only critique I can find is that the colors feels a bit muted. But I think that has less to do with your skill and more with whatever medium you used to upload the picture (a camera? scanning and doing some adjustments in photoshop may help). If you really are new to art, then keep going. If not you should have the confidence to go for the open! You deserve every drop!

I love the head of your character! It really speaks video game to me and is just cute and interesting in and of itself.