Red Dragoon Riding Hood [C&C]

[sonicspin]

No dragoons here, sorry 


I finished a drawing, some of you in slack might have seen this already
Anyways, the most appreciated help here would be background, and colors, but you can focus on anything

[tsej]

Hey! 
I love the overall atmosphere of the image. Well done! 
A few things that I noticed. 
-The blue space near the legs of the character looks very out of place.  and same goes for the white space. It's too bright and plain.
-The monster can use a bit of a make-up since it's really difficult to see and make out at first glance.
-The "spotlight" should bounce around a bit more light on the environment? (I'm not sure, though. Just saying what I think.)
-I think the ground can also benefit from small props and irregularities. 
-The shading on the trees and the monster seems very conservative.

It's done really well though, it's leagues better than what I can do right now.
I love the monster's mouth and the saliva dripping. The character and sword especially catches my eye and the spotlight effect is very neat. I'll definitely use things from this in the future. 
Good luck!

[sonicspin]

-The blue space near the legs of the character looks very out of place. and same goes for the white space. It's too bright and plain.

oops 

-The monster can use a bit of a make-up since it's really difficult to see and make out at first glance.

ah yes! I had no idea how to fix this, but then flashbulb happened, thus, now i have attempted to fix it

The "spotlight" should bounce around a bit more light on the environment? (I'm not sure, though. Just saying what I think.)

i believe not, the spotlight is facing the viewer (although if this was real life, it wouldn't), therefore, the only light it goes into is your face, which if i am correct, is outside the drawing 

I think the ground can also benefit from small props and irregularities.

but it has all the little rocks and grass x) is that not enough? if somebody else disagrees, i will try 

-The shading on the trees and the monster seems very conservative.

the trees: low importance, low detail
the monster: as far as i know, ink and inky things aren't very receptive to light, only having a slight change, and then the spotlights (which i went overboard with)

It's done really well though, it's leagues better than what I can do right now.

thank you
now for the slight revision

added a backlight, filled the white space with some trees, fixed the bluespace
if anybody wants a version without characters, for whatever reason here it is

[leveler50]

Your slight revision looks better. I just found the colours a bit too sharp/strong/unnatural, so I made them smoother /more natural:

[BatElite]

Only edited colours and the rocks a little.

The two problems I have with this are that the grass distracts too much attention and the monster blends into the background too much except for the tongue, which is very bright.

I doubt there is a colour that works both for the monster and the background. I also think that the purple and blue trees should have their colours reversed, but that would give you a problem with the trees behind the ink thing.

By the way, are the things on the ground casting shadows rocks or grass? I assumed rocks, because the shading is rather extreme for grass.

[sonicspin]

Only edited colours and the rocks a little.

The two problems I have with this are that the grass distracts too much attention and the monster blends into the background too much except for the tongue, which is very bright.

I doubt there is a colour that works both for the monster and the background. I also think that the purple and blue trees should have their colours reversed, but that would give you a problem with the trees behind the ink thing.

By the way, are the things on the ground casting shadows rocks or grass? I assumed rocks, because the shading is rather extreme for grass.

sir, i give you many thanks
the ground was too saturated, so i made it, well, less saturated and more groundlike, then other problems with the color ramp appeared, and now the piece is much more understandable as a whole

now i need to cleanup the grass and we rollin

[trough]

I like the new, less-saturated ground color much more; it makes the characters more noticeable, and red riding hood looks redder.

Would you like a criticism barrage?
Spoiler

The ground color is so similar to the purple mid-tone of the monster that I can barely see the difference between them, but it is being used as a highlight color on the monster at the same time as it outlines edges of the monster.  This

Here I edited the highlights to be purple, and outlined the remaining edges:


A couple of the blue trees are in front of, and overlapping brown trees.  This make blue trees appear actually blue rather than just paler from distance.  Maybe this is what you intend?  If not, it would make more sense if the trees progressed to blue as they progress back and away from the warm light.

[sonicspin]

The ground color is so similar to the purple mid-tone of the monster that I can barely see the difference between them, but it is being used as a highlight color on the monster at the same time as it outlines edges of the monster

ah, even when i added a purple higlight color, i forgot to actually apply it 

A couple of the blue trees are in front of, and overlapping brown trees.  This make blue trees appear actually blue rather than just paler from distance.  Maybe this is what you intend?  If not, it would make more sense if the trees progressed to blue as they progress back and away from the warm light.

that was residue from the first version, if you see it, you see that the trees go blue to dark purple (continuation of blue), so it looks better
and the outline thing, yes, the monster shouldn't blend with the ground, tried to fix that

[Roach]

Your sword kind of looks like a club to me, maybe try lightening the shade color and removing some of the AA, because it looks like a pyramid on top of it, giving it a club shape to my eyes.