I concur with your opinion . The real issue is keeping as bright as the requester wants while maintaining contrast. What this means is a lot of small touch ups/redrawing. As you can see I COMPLETELY redrew the water.

I redid the sky to try and add some depth. Plus I redid some of the creatures to make them less standoffish(or however you want to put it). And tried blending the outcrop of land on the right a bit more.


Look any better? What would you think of adding a small fantasy boat with childlike figures to observe the dolphin? I was also thinking of adding some small birds. All to add some extra life to it(obviously I would be working all this on a micro scale in the far back).