Thanks for the in-depth comment!

I agree with you that I could push the bright colors a bit more, I am very indecisive when choosing light sources. For outdoor bright light pics this is especially noticeable. I went back and brightened the sky a bit and also brightened up the sand in the background. I also added a bit more shadows to accent the picture. But I don't plan to tweak the picture anymore, I'm sticking a fork in it.



For darks, I really don't like the darks on my old pics. I do need to learn to add more darks to the right places to accent objects in crevices and so on, but I don't really like very dark colors in cartoon paintings. In that old painting for example there seems to be zero bounce light at all and the darks just seem blackish and boring. I'm still very much learning, but I am just aiming for something different as far as dark vs light colors. At times things may seem washed out when I do it badly though, but it's all a work in progress.



There is nothing wrong with the darker style, there are many artist who are very good with dark colors. But it's just not my cup of tea.







