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I hadn't seen the close-up and reference photo when I first waded in, but they confirm a feeling that I had earlier, that the pupils weren't the same size or in quite the same orientation, and I think that's in part what was creating what I referred to as the "dazed" look. (In my own experience, I get that look when the shot of tequila is about halfway down and just before I bite the lime wedge.) I think what's happened is that the bright, large catchlight in the eye on our left is [in the reference photo] "hiding" part of that pupil and making it look smaller than it really is. Likely, in fact, the bright light has constricted both pupils way down. You might play with enlarging them a tad and see if it's still "Bracken". (I like to hold up a being a acetate or other clear plastic to the image and use a Sharpie to "test" such notions. In this case, I really do see quite a difference with the pupils enlarged a bit and the catchlights a bit smaller (retaining the portion that's higher in the eye) and slightly reduced in intensity and containing just a touch of the color complementary to the yellow-green irises.)
I can see in the photo where the reflected light under the chin is coming from, but I think it's keyed up a little too high in the painting. (Harley Brown calls this "reflected-light-itis".)
Background. I have competing demons working in me (fussbudget and free spirit) on this, especially as I work through some of Richard Schmid's presentations. I thought the background here was notable but not objectionable when I first saw the piece. In a way, its informality and looseness mirrored the "attitude" I saw in the subject, a casually-clothed, goateed fellow, hair swept straight back. In another context I might not have been as comfortable with it. I'd only add that you want to be sure that the background is driven by the design of the overall piece, and not just by what happened to show up in the reference photograph.
By the way, since you've successfully lured me into my 100th post on SOG, an appropriate tribute is being prepared for you by the Committee on Standards to Preserve Bandwidth and Disk Space.
Cheers,
Steven
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