I REALLY need help with this panel

[DokiDokiTsuna]

AAARRRRGG

This is the best I got after messing with it for ~2 hours last night. >_<

My first issue was doing the lighting effects...I wanted a way to show this glowing thing in a specific color without throwing that color all over the figure, and also without using gradients (this art style focuses on very minimalist cel-shading). I managed to come up with this from looking at anime screen shots, and I like it...

...But now the background is impossible. I've tried light colors; I've tried dark colors; I've tried gradients (this is one) I've tried drawing the surrounding buildings in; I've tried leaving it blank; NOTHING looks good.

I'M AT MY WIT'S END

...Anyway, any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. ^^; Whatever I have to do with the background OR the shading style to make this panel work is on the table. The rest of the comic update is almost ready for posting; I'd really prefer it if this one scene didn't stall the whole thing.

[silverraven0]

Just use action lines like this.

[nixxusnibelheim]

Honestly it feels fine to me but if I was to be nitpicky, you might wanna try to desaturate the background and from there, go light or dark. I'm not entirely sure but it's possible that the value blend too much together.
In this shot, your character have to be the center of attention, the colors are already saturated and bright for the character, and the background is also saturated, maybe that's what bothers you?

In that case, the solution could be to create a clear contrast in value between the character and the background.
Since the character have a glowing thing, I'd suggest to push the character into a light value and the background to be in a more darker value.

[JRHoch]

Cock your figure 15 to 20 degrees so that it's angled more and you have greater foreshortening. Don't use a background, and get rid of the border. The figure, angled and free of a box, will look more dramatic.

Also up your contrast a bit, and make the green thing more serpentine or something bolder in shape--it's too weak and looks like you dropped ink on the panel. Don't make the hand green, unless the green thing is supposed to come from the hand--it's hard to tell. Good luck!

[rajillustration]

Hm, I think the fire is kind of small. I'd make it way, way, way bigger first off, and then I'd make the background an opposing color to the fire--but not full red because that's christmas-ey. So more of a dark greyish burgandy--the darker, the more it will pop from the neon green

A fun thing to do with light is to have a bright contrasting line in between the light and the shadow, a really saturated color hanging out there, so maybe having a neon yellow lime green line in between the green and those shadows to help it pop more?

[gurugeorge1111]

If there is light in the for-ground then make the background a dark gray black.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

You could have a plain white bg with black harsh squiggly lines that direct the attention to the flame. The wide ends would start at the panel borders and the narrow ends at the flame. So kind of like speed lines but not as many.

If the colors don't work as white bg, black lines then possibly do a simple invert to see if that works.

[CarolRiverArt]

In my recent chapter, I used a similar effect. You can use some color and play with layers effect s like overlay.

[Hodge]

Here's a quick take I did trying to think of ideas to help. I think adding a shadow behind the character with a sort of spotlight effect would help convey how glowy the thing is. Especially since you're going full white to indicate light here, some stronger shadows would help I think. Also yeah maybe messing around with the colors so the green contrasts more with its surroundings. I just used a combination of red/purple multiply and overlay layers to get this effect, and emphasized the green a bit more.

[AyAyRonM]

What you have is pretty good. What i would do, is make the fire and parts of the lighting on a new layer, and darken everything else.

Another trick I would also employ it to make a new layer above the original and just fill it black, or a very dark hue of whatever color you want, and mess with its opacity. I would then basically cut out a circle where the fire would be. Sort of like creating a vignette.

EDIT: Just saw your edit, I think it looks nice!