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Hi Janet,
I just came upon this thread, which has obviously been going on for some time. I am so impressed with your persistence and the improvements you have made. You've gotten such excellent advice from the experts, too!
I think the way you approached this (and your other work), challenging yourself to draw from what you see, couldn't be more helpful for you in the long run. If you run into trouble, those photoshop techniques are invaluable for pinpointing where you have gone wrong. I think that elusive likeness problem has happened to most artists at different times. I use the wierd and probably goofy looking method of smiling at my paintings and seeing if they smile back. If it's not quite them, i.e., if the nostril is a bit snarly and the mouth a bit droopy, I try to be really honest with myself and not gloss it over. Then I try to figure out what has caused the problem, by looking back and forth between the person or reference, and the painted image. It's usually the problem that was mentioned: the tendency to straighten out everything.
Every time you paint this fascinating girl your painting improves by leaps and bounds. It's exciting to see.
Alex
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