Virginia,

A wonderful portrait! I can tell you really put your heart into it!

This may just be another version of what Peggy said, but the girls right cheek looks as if she has a wad of gum or something hidden there! The photo does have a full cheek, but maybe the soft edge there makes the cheek look a little too full? Isn't it funny how those things are easy to spot on someone else's painting, but so hard to see on your own? ;)

Virginia,

I'm sorry, I see I never answered your question. I use Paint Shop Pro by Jasc. I simply copy one image and place it over another and then make the second layer more transparent. I love PSP and it's very inexpensive and powerful. I used it for all of SOG.

Thanks, Cynthia. I am still figuring out Photoshop which has helped me in my last two portraits. Is PSP difficult to learn?

Virginia,

I have both Photoshop and PSP and I find PSP far easier to learn.

Dear Virginia;

You have a beautiful painting, of a beautiful girl with a nice photograph. My first impression is that it is a fine painting, after looking at it for a few seconds, it is still a fine painting but her right eye seems large compared to her left eye, and her head seems large for the body.

It seems that the photograph was not taken with a telephoto lens. When you have a close up photo like this without a telephoto lens, always be aware of the distortion created by the convexity of the lens. To me her right shoulder in the photograph looks much smaller than it should be in nature. There may even be some slight distortion in the face. You are an excellent draftswoman, and the discrepancies from the photo to your painting are so small that it is hard to see any thing wrong.

Daniel

I like the luminosity in her skin tones...this is a benefit of starting with an underpainting. Nice work!

:thumbsup: