Something feels off about this illustration

[Yogita Chawdhary]

Something feels a bit off with the coloring of this BW illustration. The dragon is light coloured because it's supposed to be a white, shimmery one, like the one I illustrated in a previous mock cover. Link to the mock cover (It is is the first one in here): https://www.yogitachawdhary.com/middlegradebookcover

I’d love any feedback on how to improve it!

[MarcRobinson]

@Yogita-Chawdhary the design is super cool. It is hard to make something look white and shimmering when it is on a white background. Greyscale illustration is all about how values compare to each other. Maybe a darker background would help and adding some very bright highlights on the body would make it look shimmering. I'd recommend looking at reference of fish with shimmering scales and make it black and white to see the values.

[mag]

@Yogita-Chawdhary I think @MarcRobinson has a great point! Here's a quick mock-up, if you separate the values and make the BG darker, the dragon may look white and sparkly
It's a grave scene, so I think even if the actual situation in the book doesn't happen at night, dark BG will help enhance the mood.

[Yogita Chawdhary]

@mag @MarcRobinson Thank you both for your valuable feedback! You made great points about darkening the background to help the characters pop. And a thank you to Mag for taking the time to create the mock-up!
I've updated the scene and left some space at the top for text as I wanted this to be a half-page illustration. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the updated version!

[mag]

@Yogita-Chawdhary It's great! The dragon definitely reads as white and sparkly now!
Looking at your illustration again, I just realized you might wanna place one of the spears, the one at the center. maybe make it smaller and move it a bit sideways? It kinda divides the whole illustration in half and draws too much
attention to itself.
Sorry for nitpicking like that, the whole scene is powerful and you depicted the emotions really nicely!

[Yogita Chawdhary]

@mag That is a great observation and I'm glad you pointed it out. I'm going to make the changes on my end. It makes me happy to see how the illustration has improved with the right feedback. Thank you so much!