Compositionally, the trees and shafts of light are catching the eye, and leading them right off the bottom edge of the piece. The brightest part of any painting is usually the focus, on top of that the beams of light split the painting in half, and steal the focus of the painting even more.
On top of that, you have one half of the focal point, the monster, in literally a black hole. Not only does the lighting not match the environment, but it pushes the figure off of the plane that the knight is on, so it becomes effectively background. In 3D terms (which really shouldn’t be used when talking painting), the z index of the monster is further back than the background.
Your color composition, and values, are also not working - again, the shafts of light are too stark compared to the rest of the piece, and the black hole of the monster throw it all off. One good way to look at your values is to convert the piece to black and white, and look if the values are creating the depth and volumes that you want and need (in the old days, we’d make xerox’s of paintings - which was always fun with oils that were’nt died yet!). If you convert this to B&W, the issues are still there. Your colors are off - the right side is a completely different color environment than the rest, and it feels like a different painting entirely. You could maybe say this is dream-like, but it’s jarring in the execution, and puts that part of the background on a different plane than the other side.
I’m confused by the spiderweb in the center. Is it attached to the leaning pole trees? It seems to be lit by the light shafts, but it has no perspective to show where it’s actually attached, and it’s flat as they’re all at the same angle to the viewer.
Now, about the levels of detail. What Luna was talking about is the foreground - you have sharp details on the knight, and the square objects on the ground, but the leaves, tree trunk, rocks, pebbles, and leaves are all fuzzy, and that’s jarring to the eye. The level of detail has to be consistent on each plane in the painting - the background can be less in focus, but objects in the same location have to have the same level of detail. You also have more detail on the leaning trees, and less on objects like the grass and fence, which are closer to the eye. The monster is all over the place, in some areas it’s sharp details, on others its fuzzy. It just reads as “unfinished”. The monster should also have more reflected light on it.
I also feel that the darkness of the monster is something of a cop-out. It’s hard to tell what’ going on there, which could be fine, but what it reads as is scatter random shapes, arms, and spider legs - there’s nothing bringing them together into one entity. I know you’re going for dream-like, but it’s not quite right.
Lastly, the most important issue here is you need to set up tension between the knight figure and the monster, and look down on the scene doesn’t quite do it. There should be visual clues that keep the eye bouncing between the knight and the monster, and again, the shafts of light cut that right in half. I would suggest lowering the viewing angle, so we’re looking at the knight straight on, and the monster is looming over him - that would set up the tension. I would also have leaning trunks on the right side, leaning towards the right, to balance the angles on the left, and “bracket” or “frame” the figures.
I would add another shaft of light, perhaps smaller, or a couple more, to emphasize that they are important, and part of the narrative, and spread your colors and lighting out more, but that’s me, it may not fit your backstory.
Hope this helps!
