Coloring in backgrounds

If you want your main subject to pop out, consider a palette of paler colors for the background. Or even a contrasting palette of colors.

This was my takeaway from doing this eagle and the following bird, both from my Harmony of Colour book:

I used browns (again!) for the eagle, which was fine,
but I should have muted the colors of the background. I
realised this too late, and didn't even bother finishing
the work on the background. Consider this
an abandoned piece...

This one worked better, with the (mythical?) bird in
strong teal and the background in pastels. This too, was an
abandoned work. I ran out of patience to color in
 the fiddly background!