unicorns

This is the first of the illustrations I am doing for my final piece, which shall be a set of three key points taken from the story. I have decided that fewer colourful illustrations would be preferable to more black and white ones, as my research shows this is more common in children's books. Children find coloured images preferable (I put this question to my friend's sister and brother and received a definite answer), and I also believe that they would be more interesting aesthetically for my final piece. A set of watercolour images would also be easier to recognise as children's illustration in an exhibition.

When I scanned in the image, I found that it distorted the colours somewhat. Below is the original scanned image; the light tones of pink and orangey reds seem to have completely disappeared.

I altered the colours on Photoshop a little to try to get the image as close to the real thing as possible. The image below shows this.
Whilst messing with this, I increased the blue tones to end with the image below. I actually find this image preferable to my original painting as I think it is somewhat more mysterious and depicts the 'blue light' from which the unicorn appears far better. It also makes the light seem to reflect off of the trees in the background.
If it was possible to submit the images for printing digitally, I think I would choose the bottom image.