Not Quite the Thing

I've been working on nursery art here and there, and one of the things I was really excited to do was a piece celebrating Sandra Boynton's The Going to Bed Book- specifically the line, "The moon is high, the sea is deep." which has just so thoroughly captured my imagination (obviously).  I had a very clear vision in my mind, of something very graphic with bold blocks of gradient blues and a stylized yellow moon.

pencil and inks, with the idea that I'd go back over the inks after I laid down the color

 

before I went back over the ink.  note the lovely bleeding effect

refreshed inks and a brilliant yellow moon

As it turned out, I got inspired to abandon the gradient and instead use brush texture to differentiate between sea and sky.  I also went a little insane and did a fairly detailed silhouette of a frigate (because of course I did) which didn't really vibe with the stylized moon I had so clearly envisioned.

And now I'm stuck.  I got to this point a week or two ago, and I wasn't satisfied with it, so I let it sit, to see if I could think up what I want to do differently.  I do think I'm going to go over the words with silver ink, so they pop better, but other than that... I just don't know.  So I guess I'll leave it to percolate a bit longer.

Perhaps some thread embellishment?