Placing characters in bg colours schemes

This morning I decided to copy the characters over onto the three bg colour schemes that I painted, to make sure that they worked well with the style of background.

The third background is by far the best of the three.

This first image the background is too messy and rough, it just doesn't have the right feel.


The second background, because of the darkground the girl starts to get lost in the background, blending in, it just doesn't contrast enough.


The third background feels lighter than the other two, and neater, and the characters stand out, but don't look out of place.


I've come to the conclusion, just based off these samples, that these traditionally painted backgrounds do work well even with the digitally painted characters. The background doesn't have to be painted perfectly to work but it can't be too rough. The characters need to contrast with the background just enough for them to stand out but not enough for them to look out of place.