City of Traitors Alter

Doodling did not bring anything new or well anything I'd like to work on. It seems that I manage to draw on daily basis but it seems that producing something good really needs a different approach.

City of Traitors is yet another Magic: The Gathering card that costs about 650CZK. Quite overpriced isn't? No matter what I don't like the original image by Kev Walker so I decided to go for my own picture. I had two ideas in my mind but decided to realize one.
[I wanted to add an image, but I can't view the link unless I manage to repair my right button on my stylus. I'll fix this..I mean the link]

So I worked on this card for three days. It does not seem like too much of a work, does it? Well, I spent one day sketching ideas for the city and settled on one.

I asked people around if it looks relatively ok and if they recognize what it is. They did recognize the City. So I applied a basic layer of grey/brown color and outlined the buildings, smoke and um...that volcanic lava..something. Then I tried my best to make it ok. After the first day the colors were really dull. Much more then on the following picture. Also the buildings were relatively flat and one couldn't really distinguish where the buildings are.

The next day I came back to work on it and tried to add some depth to it. I added something like highlights and shadows to the smoke, the volcanic lava stream and worked for hours on the buildings. It did not turn out the way I wanted. So a third stage might be needed in which I would try to make the colors even more vivid and do something with the soft lines outlining the buildings.

Jeremiah told me that I should work more on the contrast and he's right about that. Masuli (the person giving me feedback on my last alters) also said that. I really need more depth.