Making changes to reduce distracting elements

There’s always a constant evaluation of the overall image throughout its creation. It’s at this point in the process when I feel that some of the background elements are distracting and taking away from the main figure. So I paint in a more organic and less noisy sand dune element that relieves that visual tangent and tension of the previous rock formations and the character’s hand that’s furthest from the viewer. The clarity in this part of the image now puts more focus back on the main figure and leads the viewer’s eye more effectively to the character.