WiP final assignment for creative composition - help with lighting

[Matt Burge 1]

Hello all. I am working on this illustration for creative composition class. I am going to render it today, but I am wondering how I can use contrast to high light the squirrel and lizard as main focal points? In the lesson it was mentioned to use hi and lo contrast to push the focus. I was thinking I was just going g to try and darken most of the other noise like the snail. Bee hive, mushrooms etc. Initially I was going to make the squirrel very dark, and the lizard light. I am working traditionally ATM so I don't want to do a lot of edits, and I need to finish this piece today, so I do not want to re work the composition or those things too much at this stage, although I can see a few errors already.

Also I am working in black and white pencil.

[Asyas_illos]

@Matt-Burge-1 hi! I think your composition is working just fine and I like your style, if you are working in just grayscale just make sure your values vary like where you want high contrast, lights on darks and darks on lights. But the same rules apply with color. Post the final I’d like to this finished! Nice work

[tom.barrett]

@Matt-Burge-1 Hi Matt,
This is the first idea that came to mind. Perhaps you could use the sun shining thru the trees to highlight the individual characters, using that light to create the shadowing you desire to filter out the "noise" and focus on the 2 main characters. I did a quick drawover as an example.

[Matt Burge 1]

@tom-barrett thanks Tom. This was so helpful! I had actually finished it and then saw your post, and went back to it!

[Matt Burge 1]

@Asyas_illos thanks a ton!