Is it just the foliage is tripping you up?

Yes. >>

If you'd like to send me the psd so I can work at it at a larger size, I can do something like http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16121107/ or http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/.....psw4wgqnzq.png

I'll give it a go :)

Working on this

Honestly, what you have in the sketch would look great.
Maybe add a light mist of some sort?

Here is my suggestion:

Redline

Worked with these for reference:
http://www.ambient-mixer.com/images.....7d639_full.jpg
http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/.....040666364a.jpg

Always remember with a landscapey background to ensure a sense of foreground, mid-ground and background for that sense of depth and stuff

If you'd like the .PSD for the redline, I can email it to you :) The close lime green is meant to be a palm leaf. That would look awesome! :D

http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/.....040666364a.jpg **

gonna do an paintover when i get back from getting groceries!
I can see some errors that might just bee the cause of the problem!

Super quick thing (redline?) http://i.imgur.com/OuqvGnU.jpg I spent like 10-15mins on it so it's not super refined or amazing. I basically took a lot from the sketch you did and added some extra foliage around it and some moss to the rocks.

So I did a paintover too
render-wise bourbon.'s is somewhat better, I lazied it with a bunch of brushes
but unlike her I went for a more 'depth-strong' and more realistic type or interpretation. (which is not better, just different)

First of all: a swampy area is very lively, full of frogs and insects, it's very noisy, very dirty.
it needs a LOT of color variation. from yellow to blues the grass , the water all should vary, a single teal color makes the images rigid and 'artificial'
and a lot of detail suggestion - you don't necessarily have to paint in every little detail, but you should give the impression of high detail everywhere - the rock should be crude, the background should have something in it

another thing that is not relevant to the foliage are your light sources. the pink character receives light to his back, but that light doesn't cast it's shadow on that rock.

here is the paintover:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....ues/ajna/6.jpg

missed the jungle + canopy part in the journal.

ten points pour gryffindor, sorry
but the points are still true, about color variation and details, in that sense a swamp and a jungle are similar

That is 10 million times better, wow. I will keep that in mind as I work on it more. Thank you!

These may help:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6010842/

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6015207/

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6015286/

http://tinyurl.com/k78r9mh

http://tinyurl.com/kpvwlnm

http://zooboy666.deviantart.com/art.....heme-102479586

I see you've got some great alternatives already, but I could give you a "redline" of it later today if you'd want some more alternatives? I love helping out :D

If you want to, that would be great! I'm finding a lot of helpful points from many different people so far~

Here ya go! :D http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16620479/

Gosh that's great, thanks! The trees are perfect

Yay! You are most welcome! I'm glad I could help you out :3

I wonder why comments are disabled on it? D:

I thought that maybe because it was Anjas work it would maybe be best if people went to her account and commented on her work :3 I'm weird, haha, sorry :>