Ooooh! Very nice idea. Thank you. I'll try that out.
Playing with gradient maps and painting a quick rough of the background before I add Fili into the mix. I'll add her in and see what the image looks like before refining the background further.
So I added Fili into the composition and shrunk the background a bit to add more emphasis and space for Fili herself.
oh that'[s awesome! Nice focal point and colours there 
One more time before I start painting in earnest.
Yee ha! Adding color to this baby. This is my favorite part, rendering the characters in a scene. Granted, I still need to add the little golems.
Almost completed. I still need to add the golems. I'll have to refine a few colors here and there, play with the contrast and saturation most likely.
Ahh looking good! Yeah you could definitely make the characters darker. Also with how the lighting is shining near them, the girl wouldn't have such dramatic lighting on her legs and technically the light is being obstructed by the spines of the turtle
One more before I call it a day. I'll pick up on this tomorrow or so and see what I can do to fix/manipulation/add.
Could not help myself...I was playing with instagram and I tried out a filter that I thought worked well with a x closeup shot of Fili. I don’t know but I might use it to help me rework some areas in the final image.
testing out my focus areas with the use of a gradient map. ever since working in photo retouching I've learned not to use absolute blacks and whites plus in illustration absolute blacks appear to muddy the colors. So I use the gradient map and a levels layer to affect the black and pay attention to the saturation areas too. I'll be adding the other characters into the image once I get the overall look resolved.Plus using this forum lets me have quick access to my previous images while I work on in my software of choice. (I'm using a laptop).
All right, I think I've been looking at this too long. I'll have to revisit before I end up submitting the final.
One more before I call it a day. I might revisit this tomorrow.
So adding a slight update. Added a little more contrast according to a few people's recommendations.
Another two updates. One I fixed some abstracts around the character. The other I added a gradient to the overall piece. Debating which one I should enter. I wanted to stay away from absolute blacks but in order to have really high contrast I would have to adopt them. Choices...
Yeah I'd always avoid absolute blacks if you can. The main predicament here why you're not getting contrast is because most of your character shape is all darks with just highlights, you're missing a lot of mid tones which is what bridges the gap and makes contrast appear more predominant. I personally prefer the first, the deep dark blues is a nice touch, and it goes well with the orange but that's my feedback on your values!
