New direction..?

I've been struggling recently with my paintings, I feel like they are flat and lacking energy. I'm also worrying that if they were shrunk down and produced inside the book they are not strong enough in composition and the subtleties of the paint and texture would be lost. My tutor suggested that they weren't illustrative enough so I might try and combine my painting with my drawings and use ink and collage so they are more linear. I have been looking at Dave Mckean's work a lot and how he manages to combine atmospheric painting and illustration.

Some work by Dave Mckean: