Great work.
In fact, both photographs have great design elements to them. To be honest I don’t see the “beast” in your ‘beast” shot. It has an identifiable color palette, clean edges, good focus, it doesn’t suffer from amputation, it has limited objects, informal balance and the main visual idea is clear.
There are some shadows that I think distract from the overall composition of the shot, but generally speaking, it’s not terribly composed.
Your beauty shot is further simplified down to a color palette made up of gradients of orange and black. The main visual elements in this photograph are line, shape and pattern. Some of these visual elements are created by the object’s themselves, with others are created by the lighting and the shadows.
For example, you’ve effectively added texture, line, shape and pattern to your wall by using the candlelight to project the pattern of the candle holder onto the wall. Without this visual element the image may have appeared too simple, or too flat. However, by breaking up the background you gave your composition an interesting and textured background.
You’ll see this in films all of the time. Films generally stay away from white walls. If they are unavoidable, they a combination of a few things. They either cover the wall with fabric, or wallpaper. The put up artwork or as you’ve done they put up colour lights and used “gobo’s” to created shadowed patterns or texture on the background. It livens up the composition and gives the audience as secondary visual element to explore beyond the main object, or foreground object.
Overall, great work. I look forward to seeing your next assignment.