I could tweak this till the end of days, but there comes a point where it needs to stop. In some ways I prefer previous versions - the breathing room, for one. She seems too tightly jammed into this little box. Maybe at some point I'll un-abandon Milady (it's based on a screengrab of Faye Dunaway from The 4 Musketeers) and move her into more spacious digs - finish it more.
Adding critique:
What bugs me the most is the looseness - everything is just slightly off. Shape of the head, placement of features, size of them. The eyes look slightly different, in terms of size, shape and placement. There's something off about the placement of the temporal bone - it should be higher and maybe a bit scooted forward - maybe a bit too much space there on the side of the head. All of this relates to the process I used - slapping everything down loose and sloppy and unfocused, and then moving things around as I gradually firmed it up. This is like the process I used to use in drawing that I called ghosting it out, where I'd start by drawing very lightly, then look at it and see what needs changing, and then I'd erase parts that need fixing and re-draw, still very lightly, until it all looked right. In fact often I'd erase the whole thing and re-draw over it. Erasing doesn't completely remove the lines - it just makes them less visible. The difference though is I used line, which is much more precise than formless blobs of digital paint.
One of the things that's been improving vastly in recent pieces is my control. Just from experience and familiarity. In fact now I might be able to draw halfway decently using the stylus and tablet - something I couldn't do before. Need to do practice each day and see how it goes - just circles and shapes, but going for precision.
And if I still can't draw digitally then I need to do the drawings on paper and scan them in before painting. Or find a way to make my digital alla prima approach a lot tighter.
There's more critique I could add - about color and a few other things, but this is the most important, and the rest will develop just through practice.
Also - start drawing from life. A lot!
It's almost to the point of permanent abandonment now - I just want to work on the forehead and then I'll call it quits.
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Montage of improvement - supply your own music please:
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