Deep sea encounter

[brokk]

Hi, I'm doing excersises like this one to practice illustration. Not really finished, but I feel half way stuck. Its inspired by the deep sea c.o.w.

Some things on it I like, other I don't, but I can't really say what... I think it may be too overall dark and not enough lighted areas... also maybe the color choices are off. My idea was to use cold lights/warm shadows for the guy, warm lights/cold shadows for the girl. I don't know if I'm achieving this, or if its even a good idea.
Also the compostion looks boring now that I look at it... maybe I should have brought one charachter closer to the viewer. I don't know.

Please, if you can take the time to give me some crits on this, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Kanji2000]

Can't tell what's going on...You may want to brighten or lighten this piece up overall just so we can make out the composition...

[brokk]

Thank you Kanji, I wanted to make the figures blend with the dark background but I see I went overboard. I will try to lighten it up overall, and on some areas more than others as well now that I think about it.

EDIT: the thing is, I dont want to loose the deep sea feel... I dont know how to resolve this yet, keep the image dark enough but also light it enough at the same time.