Thanks everyone. I so appreciate your time and insights! I feel like you're helping me not just with this painting, but with more general questions of my approach to likeness. I've been doing this as a business about 4 years, and find that overall I hit it just right about 60-75% of the time, but the likenesses I have difficulty with can be very frustrating for both me and my clients. I found Steven's detailed analysis really helpful in pointing out how much room I have to become more observant.
Perhaps it is a question that some poses and expressions are just a lot more difficult to capture than others? I most likely need to be more cautious when selecting them.
It is important to the mother that the girl is laughing at her youngest brother, so maybe the answer is to go to a more true profile, as Linda suggests.
I've already taken hundreds of photos for this commission (thank goodness for digital photography) so I'll pour through them once again and see if I can come up with something better!
Thanks again. After laboring alone, it's such a pleasure to get feedback from people who really know!
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