I think the blue background is a bit too close to the colours of the hair and armour. Maybe go for some contrast, green or even orange?
You may have the gradient the wrong way around too, would it be better to have the light areas behind the dark hair, and the darker shades behind the swords? At the moment it's light against light, dark on dark.
Love the purple colors, but I feel like you need something to contrast them with. His outfit is blue-is as well so there isn't really a focal point because the colors are merging together. Maybe decrease the saturation for the armor, and add more shadows to make the purple glow stand out more? You could also try playing around with the background color, something with a red accent maybe
@moirae The reason the armor is close to the background color was because I was going for an monochromatic color scheme. The way the gradients of the background was the way it is due to the energy blast being the immediate focal point because its basically a bright light source. But this all is an experiment still. I actually had a reverse background version which you can see here
@yazziixx I actually tried a red-ish background. I found it to be kinda interesting. I had an orange green one like moirae had suggested but I forgot to save that one.
I like both of you guys suggestions and feedback. For now I'll tackle the line art and comeback to colors and lighting.
Cant wait to see the lineart for this, so far its super powerful and the red background gives it an edge, also the sticks are really nice!
I actually don't mind the idea of a more monochromatic colour scheme tbh. I can see how it'd work when the image is fully fleshed out. I think subtly altering the values so that it's more of a analogous colour scheme (I straight up had to google that y'all, I don't know art lingo), could maybe give a smidge more contrast without going full on complementary colour scheme. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just fun to break away from here and there.
Regardless, enjoying your progress. Look forward to more.
@Gil_Ascher thank you. Line art Below
@s-stark Thanks. I like analogous colors as well.
Probably not the best lines but this is workable. Probably going to keep refining this maybe or just move onto values/Lighting schemes. As always feedback always welcomed.
Awesome!! Really great line work! 
@rgdraw @tbrk @marianoeliceche @dreamsequenz Thanks you guys for the support.
Clean line and great design ! Nice project
@dreamsequenz Now I just need to get the shadows to look right.
I took a break for a while, but, now I can kinda get back to this. First pass for the AO and Highlights.
AO, Lighting and Flats. Its kinda coming together.
I can modify the lighting a bit easier.
Awesome! Great progress ont this!!
Those bright colours work really well, really interesting design
Just a quick thought, is he attacking or defending?
@rgdraw Thank you
@nesokaiyoh Thank you
@dreamsequenz Thank you but unfortunately I won't finish this.
@moirae Not sure anymore. I remember having a plan but I got bored.
This is the last version of this piece before I got bored. I probably won't be making a new illustration from scratch like previous years. Best of luck to everyone that is entering and if you are reading this I hope you had fun for this years ArtWar.
