Last minute dragonfly thoughts?

Coley

Hi all. I am closing in on final.

Is this too dark? It's supposed to be night or just before dawn.

Is the orange glow too orange and too glowy?

I don't know if values are clear enough.

Too saturated?

Thanks for any input. My goal was to complete a dragonfly as well as a sequential narrative piece to my mouse in the ring I did in February. To add to my portfolio. It was rather hellish to try to pull off lol.

I might work some more fur flying etc. Will see.

Thanks peeparonis!

Coley

Slightly less saturation on characters and reduced opacity on the glow

Jeremy Ross

Looks good @Coley!

@Coley I love this less saturated version. Really well done!

miranda-hoover

@Coley Very cool! I love how the longer I look at it, the more details I discover (also, I like the colors in your second version).

It does feel a little bit dark overall to me, but that does make sense given the situation and might be dependent on the context. I think it would be worth doing a quick experiment by making the lighting a little more dramatic. It seems like the dragonfly's body is a pretty consistent value from its head to its tail, so maybe try brightening up their faces and darkening their tails.

Also, I don't know if this is good advice or not, so please feel free to ignore, but I wish I could see a little more detail of what's on the paper. I'm assuming it's a treasure map, but can't really be sure. Maybe add a faint X or something to make it a bit more clear what they're searching for.

Super cute! This would make an adorable children's adventure story.

P.S. Great job with the water.

Coley

@miranda-hoover thanks so much for the feedback. I had faded their tails out a bit last night but brightening the faces is a great idea. I’ll try that and I’m playing with the lighting still.

More deets on the map is great idea too, it is a treasure map. I’ll add an x in there

Coley

Possibly done LoL. One more day to nitpick! I wish I could fix some comp issues, values etc. And I spent wayyy too long on this but even with that said, I learned a ton doing this so I'm happy with that

carrieannebrown

@Coley Gorgeous! I liked the wings on the first image you posted though, they looked like antique metal work.

Coley

@carrieannebrown thanks I'm struggling with what I like better lol 🥴