Ss'sozi's Kids WIP (REALLY Need Some Advice!!)

Alright, I've been trying to figure out the foreground/background in this picture, it is still far from done, but those trees are seriously driving me crazy, and no matter what I do to them, I can't get the look right; they feel... too far away maybe? Maybe too dark or not dark enough, too flat? Should I skip the trees or just make them more sparse? I'm not sure; but please let me know what you think so I can try and get them looking like proper jungle trees and finish the rest of the background xD

Finally had a chance to work on this a bit, and I'm having a blast with the shading!

I've never used SAI for an in-depth piece before, and I really like how it feels more like traditional shading than what I could put together in Photoshop. This is far more like what I would do with pencil and paper, and I love how it's turning out so far.

The last WIP is in my scraps if you'd like to read a little bit about Masozi and see the progression, you'll see a full bio, and perhaps even a little accompanying scene for this when I post the final version.

Let me know what you think!

Masozi and Sonia are (c) to me, ~Kelly-WritersSoul
Saqui is (c) to ~theDarkessLight