My pleasure.
Okay good I was hoping that was what you meant. So he was a light value subject on a light value background. So I just changed that “overall” enough to create more contrast. You already had the warm subject on the cool background. Hue contrast of warm/cool felt right to you so I applaud you following that instinct.
I believe that in the case of shadows hiding the face there are always solutions. And that line of thinking really limits the way that you can make images and control the mood. I'm not saying it isn't useful in its own right. But following it for its sake of avoiding some pitfalls in the future can limit the way all of your images look in mood and style.
Atmospheric light or lights, or rim light, can lighten the shadow if you need to add information into the shaded areas. I did that with the sky color in the shadow shape above to illustrate that idea.
Take liberties for the sake of your picture to improve its appearance. I can’t tell you why Frazetta painted red next to his black occlusion shadows but it sure was impactful for color.
Your value structure, or construction of your composition value ranges will bolster the "pop" of your image focal points and mood before color.
If you have a full "wide shot" of the subject and background, the details are not so important except for the focal points. Always consider how people are going to view the image on what platform. Your thumbnail image for Deviant art, or Artation for example can have a focal point fill the frame. But if the image is going to be viewed in full, very few people are going to click on it to view the entire image at full resolution. That is why I suggest the largest brush you can use in an area, that way you can more quickly control the edges between colors and shadow shapes.
I look forward to the update.
