Background help

[Chris Saper]

Hi Beth,

There is very little I have to add after the excellent critiques you have already received.

However, I wanted to comment that you have some really nice lost edges going on, especially in the forehead's slihouette edge in light, and in the beard areas. The glasses look good as is, so if it were my painting I'd leave them alone.

The only constructive thing I might add is to review the edges of the lip in shadow and the eye in shadow; think about knocking down the edges and contrasting values in the shadow. You have properly desaturated color in the shadow areas here. Last, consider softening the hairline, especially at the widow's peak.

Fine job!