[Chris Saper]

Dear Mara,

I think that the comments you have received are excellent. Perhaps one of the most important things about the experience of painting from life (a lot) is that there just isn't any way to paint successfully from photos without the real time practice.

Painting a self portrait from life does usually have compositional limitations (a good topic for another thread) because of mirror positions, etc. Painting a self-portrait from a photograph, however, has other inherent demands: excellent lighting, sound composition and thoughtful execution.

Here are my thoughts on a critique.

Composition. I like the extra breathing room given on our left. Because you have elected to place a very light figure against a very dark background, you have lots of edge challenges at hand. The area under your arm on our left becomes a small eye-trap because of the extreme contrast in values and the sharp edges. This would be easy to fix. The areas where the arms are cropped, though, can't be fixed. Their light value, strong edges against the gown, and positions tend to make them into arrows that accidentally call the viewer to exit your canvas.

Composing your figure to either include a circle of hands - or cropping into a head/shoulders-would probably be good compositional options.

Selection of resource material. It's hard to say (not seeing your material) whether you have lit yourself in a way that maximizes your ability to show 3-d form through modeling. There seem to be conflicting light sources.

Drawing. We are all, as Sharon says, asymmetrical. That's part of the challenge in determining the viewpoint - whether to emphasize or minimize the asymmetry. As I don't know you, I can't say, but check the directional angles of your eyes compared to your lips. The eyes move upward to our right, the lips downward to our left.

Values. If you have Photoshop you might try the "posterize" function. You have clear lights and darks, but have few middle values. The lights and darks are somewhat equal in the relative square inches they comprise, and their positions don't encourage as much eye movement as they might if there were a bit more variety. The values in the gown seem a little arbitrary.

Edges. Aside from the above mentions, the pattern in the empire waist band has strong contrast and sharp edges, which makes for an accidental eye magnet. The place where the halter top moves behind the left side of your neck, has very sharp edges, same issue.

I have painted self-portraits from life, as well as from photos. Alternate - then you can really get a grip on how to interpret photos, based on your practice from life.

Best wishes!