Nightfall WIP-Rabbit vs Owl

[Carmanda]

Hi there! Trying break my anxious ghost-lurker habits and actually participate in the forums and contests instead of just silently admiring everyone's work.

As a folklore podcaster, I figured I'd dive into folklore about nightfall for this. There are a bunch of tales about animals fighting for day all the time vs night all the time, using either chants or magic or both to battle for supremacy. As with a lot of folklore, there are many variants of this tale, but rabbit shows up in a fair few of them. I decided to focus on Rabbit vs Owl because of the predator/prey relationship.

This is a veeerry rough color thumbnail of the concept. The stripes in the sky are just to remind me to do a transition from night>dusk colors>dawn colors> day, and I'll have those colors more emphasized on the space between the combatants.
Open to any critiques, particularly those related to composition and how much of a detailed background should exist here.

[Aaron_T]

Ghost-status unlocked! I like where you're going with this. Not being familiar with the stories about the animals' daylight preference battle, I really thought the owl was just swooping in on the bunny and he was bracing for it. I think like if you can make it feel like the animals are matched in their strengths as opposed to the predator and the prey it won't strike people the way it did me.

The rainbow lines in the sky are kind of a cool effect...almost like the aurora borealis lights. I almost feel like you could leave some version of those in to highlight the magic at that particular hour.

[Carmanda]

@Aaron_T Thanks for the insight! My original thought was to have the night side appear stronger just to kind of go with the theme, but since Rabbit is the victor in most of the stories I probably should get them a little more on even footing.

[Aaron_T]

@Carmanda I like the idea of the night being the stronger of the two forces, but I agree if Bun has a little bit more grit on his side it may help people understand what's going on. That owl is going to look great!

[Carmanda]

Couple more progress shots, still a long way to go.

[Aaron_T]

What a striking image...that top image is very cool!