wow, this is a very beautiful illustration. you make gorgeous use of natural, earthy tones while also maintaining a vibrant and cozy feel for the illustration. focusing on using the environment to draw the viewer’s attention to the character, i’d say there are a few tricks you can play to really help sell the depth of the artwork: first, i would suggest using the lighting a bit more intensely. you already have beautifully vibrant colors, and you’re already using the trick of putting the most saturated colors at the focal point; but to really make the image read the way that you want to, try pushing that contrast even further so that there’s an even starker difference between more vibrant and less vibrant areas. in the draw-over, i tried implementing these changes: using a layer set to the add blending mode (with reduced opacity), i intensified the lighting to bring the character in the water into even more focus. i started with the sky, making it brighter overall. i also added highlights to the trees at the front of the image, as well as to the frogs, lily pads, and flowers—but only to the sides that are facing the central character. since we could imagine light coming in form overhead, this is within the realm of believability; and lighting the sides of the objects that face the main character help to subtly convey the character’s importance as well, almost as if she is a light that makes things around her glow. in addition to lightening the foreground, i would also suggest darkening the background. i used a multiply layer at 50% opacity and colored over the trees that were further the background to make them seem darker (and thus, further away from the trees that are catching the light and facing the main character). this should also help the trees at the front seem like they point more directly at the main character since they are lit only on the sides that are facing her. i hope that this helps. and once again, great job coming up with this very vibrant and beautiful design! ♡
