So I put a lot of work into this. There's a lot I like, but I'm not sure how the colors work. I took a couple of the color courses. Whew, overload! Hopefully I applied some of it well.
Which "haze" in the background looks best?
I think the anteater needs more detail along his face, since the lemur and jaguar have so much. And I think I need to put something on the pages of the open books. No idea what. Or how. Any references y'all could recommend for that? Any other critiques?
Thanks!
@Daniel-Grissom This is a really neat scene! Love all the animals. In my opinion to answer your question about the best "haze" I think the one at far left looks best, everything seems to pop better than the other two.
@Daniel-Grissom awesome, love it!
@Daniel-Grissom I really like your color schemes! I think the first one is somehow more unifying, though, and it does need unity with all those animals. When you squint at it, the lemur still reads as the central focus. But if you're wanting to simplify it a little more, I think you could still take down the saturation in the background, and darken the leopard's head a bit.
As for the book, this is going to take a bit of brainstorming! It's going to have to be a second read, but those are really worth it sometimes (think of all the great inside jokes in Zootopia!). I'd think of some classic novel and then adapt it to leopards, or a work about diversity and adapt it to the animals in the bar. But those are just two quick thoughts. I'm sure there are many things that would work.
Sweet. Yea I think you’re right...I’ll take down the saturation of the haze and stick with the yellow background as it seems to unify it more. I’ll try darkening the Jaguar too. I like the book suggestions! Thanks!
@Daniel-Grissom I definitely like the first best. It unifies it nicely with more of an analogous color scheme. I think you could grey the lemur up a little bit to tone down the white. It would still read white, but wouldn't blast it so much. The colors look great. I am loving how they really created a central focus.
First one would be my fav, nice work it's coming along nicely.
To help add depth you could literally add a layer behind the lemur and others in the foreground, on that layer fill with a neutral earth tone colour and drop the opacity so its barely visable, essential knocking back the black and unifying everything in the Background and helping the foreground characters pop just bit more. Nice piece well done.
@Phil-Cullen Great advice. I wish I could think of these things when I am doing my work.
@chrisaakins It's a nice trick to add depth. Further away stuff gets the less contrast there is, so I find digitally it's very handy to knock stuff back into the distance and add depth with layers of low opacity colour, also helps unify the elements in the background.
I thought I should post the end result. I was selected as one of the finalists for this local competition, won a cash prize, and got my art put up in the city. (It got complicated when they sent me the final template, but I learned some important lessons along the way.) Thanks very much to all of you for your input!
@Daniel-Grissom wow! Thanks for showing us such an interesting application of your work, and fantastic job! Congrats on the win.
@Daniel-Grissom That is very cool!!!
Wow. Just WOW. Very very cool!!! I love how it's a wrap-around repeat. So much fun happening here!! Well done!!!
@Daniel-Grissom well done! It looks great 
@Daniel-Grissom This looks super! Congratulations! The template does look very tricky but you did a great job! 
@Daniel-Grissom congratulations! Which city is this?
Thanks a lot, folks. @Nyrryl-Cadiz this is Chattanooga, Tennessee.
@Daniel-Grissom This turned out so awesome! I love all the different animal characters, the relaxed community vibe, and the palette you chose. The button on the raccoon's nose is a really funny touch. Well done!
Congratulations @Daniel-Grissom! It came out beautiful! I’m sure it will bring many smiles to the community, especially for you!
First one would be my fav, nice work it's coming along nicely.
To help add depth you could literally add a layer behind the lemur and others in the foreground, on that layer fill with a neutral earth tone colour and drop the opacity so its barely visable, essential knocking back the black and unifying everything in the Background and helping the foreground characters pop just bit more. Nice piece well done.
