Seeking crit on colors and lightning

[Rognoll]

Hello! It's me with yet another crappy painting in desperate need of critique.

The colors look all burned up and that wouldn't be a problem on the dragon, since it's metal, but it's still annoying me a bit. Is it the pallet? The saturation? Too much lightning?
What do you think?

[meat]

If we're seeing the back of the shield, and the fire is on the other side being blocked, it'll appear a lot darker. Also the parts of the warrior most opposite to the fire will also have very dark and harsh shadows that might obscure armour details that you want to show off, but that's your choice now - show more atmosphere or show details.

[Rognoll]

Thanks, meat! Yeah, you're right, it looks like it has a completely different source of light.
I meant the shield to be semi-transparent, like made of energy, so I thought it might look like that

[adam-brown]

Hey Ragnoll,

I think the main problem with your image is the muddy values and colour. To better show light and dark your values should be clean. The same goes for colour.

The orange from the flames should be punched up a bit. It all looks a bit washed out.

I did a quick paint over to show what I mean. I hope that helps. :)

[Rognoll]

Wow! It makes a huge difference! Thanks a lot, Adam, it was really helpful.

[adam-brown]

Not a problem, I'm glad it helped.