Hi! I like the owl, looks great and the brush marks and outline. I'd agree a less varied/mottled background might be better. Smooth acrylic transitions aren't impossible though! A good water mister can really help, extender/retarder slows down the drying time well too or try using pure acrylic gloss medium and some water to get more if a flowing glaze that can be built up. They say it's best not to add too much water as it weakens the paint film but you could add a final layer of pure acrylic to fix it. My preferred method is a limited palette so I can remix and reproduce the colours easily for big areas but allow some variation. Also, a short brush can be used to push/scrub nearly dry acrylic around for quite a long time to get blends over dry paint.

OH WOW! it's floating! As for making smooth transition... I think the background works quite well with this textured colour, as long as it looks united. I use gouache with less water, it also has mixing problem if I want to go very smooth, but the strokes kinda looks interesting so I didn't bother to make it very smooth

I know they make an extender that you can add to your acrylics to make them stay wet longer. Not sure what its called, but I'm sure you could find out :)