[JadeEyePanda]

I think I got tired from creating "Bamf" characters all the time. This is my excercise in creating a lighter, more charming painting. Inspired heavily by Jason Chan, Tangled, and Pixar concept art.

I'm mainly having trouble with the value/lighting, and making the cavern look like a cavern.

I'd say to not be too scared to let the cavern get darker. Let the viewer make up the lost detail on their own. Richard Bunkall did that a lot.

http://m.artician.com/pu/4OI2VPZL2UM...Z.preview.jpeg

If you darken it up then you could make the fire and glowing things seem like they are lighting it more. If you paint the green around the light source opaquely it will make the glow seem thicker, so to speak. Here's an example of what I mean

http://web.me.com/leewhite3/Lee_Whit...Gallery.html#1
http://web.me.com/leewhite3/Lee_Whit...allery.html#26

You have that going on a bit, but I feel like you could push it more. There is just a lot of ambient light going that makes it feel a lot more comfortable than a place like that should feel.
You could even bring some of that fog from the BG in closer, darken up the area around the monster in the BG and bring up the glow of his eyes. Depending on how intense you want his eyes to glow you can put a bit of that color on the stalagmites and stalactites in front of him as well as the fog itself.
Also it looks like the little one's foot is on top of the light, which is a little weird and is loosing the illusion of depth.

I hope this is somehow helpful, and didn't come off as dickish. I'm still getting used to giving critique to people and not coming off like I'm an asshole haha. I think the overall idea is cool. I get a good sense of the two character's personalities and I do like how you can barely see the beast in the back. That fire is bad ass too. I can't wait to see where this goes.

[JadeEyePanda]

You thought your comments we're dickish? I assure you, it came off as helpful!

[JadeEyePanda]

I',ve tried implementing the above forementioned C&Cs. Definitely still feels like there's more to do though.

[amemoryinblue]

I think that even though you have a very strong colored light source, the illuminated objects shouldn't be that green. They have their own colors, which I believe should show more. Same goes for the highlights - definitely green tinted, but not absolutely the same as the lightsource. I see you've used a small brush to precisely build your highlights, but I'd suggest using larger, flat brushes to build your forms - and then, when you get to the polishing part use smaller brushes to add subtle highlights.
Take a look at this site - LINK , it has a lot of information on colors, which play a huge role in your image. Hope I've helped some and looking forward to seeing the next wip

[JadeEyePanda]

Golly, definitely felt like people's critiques here ridiculously helped! (Shout out to the CGHUB vent channel as well )

But there's more to be done. HIT ME!

[amemoryinblue]

There's definitely improvement all around the image
Now I'd suggest taking your time with the boy's face it needs some polishing; I'm noticing some orange there, I think it should be tamed down a bit. Also, the grungy detail around the fire looks a little repetitive, it would look more interesting if there is a variety of details. Also be careful of using that grungyness in other parts of the image as it looks out of place to me - for example, the boy's hair would be better without it. I really like contrast with the blues in the background; try and experiment with some light cyan-ish tones in the highlights of the fog, maybe some purple-brownish tones where it's dark and meets the rocks.
Good luck

[JadeEyePanda]

I'm hitting my "artist's wall" again.

I really want to blame my rendering skills, but there is definitely possibly something else that I am not doing correctly besides these "damned if you do, damned if you don't" decisions.

I think since the last iteration, I've been chipping away at creating the illusion of a longer tunnel by adding more lights and rock formations in the background, reducing the focus to the firelight area by cranking down the light elsewhere, and pushing the smoke from the outside to the inside more.

[amemoryinblue]

It's looking better - the subtle rendering you did at the back changed the way everything looks. Now the monster is more menacing, has expression even though it's obscured in darkness and fog. Also the rocks around look better. So - to find your inspiration, I say - be bolder and experiment. Save a copy and experiment with not so subtle brush strokes, render forms. Make new sketches of old things, that kind of stuff. Inspiration is lurking around the corner.

[JadeEyePanda]

Banging my head against the wall still. Been replacing most of the blacks with a REALLY REALLY crushed purple. Pushed highlights to a yellower green. Added a Jet-Puffed bag to explain the white marshmallows in the picture. Somewhat textured the Mushroom Dude to the right, and worked on the fog since I was adding more yellow-greens.}

This makes me feel bad, but I feel like I cheated since I slapped a rock texture on Overlay and low Opacity on the cavern and a unifying color layer of a deep ambered-yellow.

I'm really tempted to throw the towel in.