Little reminders

As with many pieces, the shading and blending on this piece looks absolutely flawless at small size. However, as soon as you push "full view," those flaws begin to present themselves.

The first thing to really bother me is the background, and how the fore- and middleground doesn't blend with it. I'll be honest, I don't like how bland it is. Some texture or maybe even a gradient or glow could realy break this up.

Next, the atmosphere doesn't match up, nor doesn't it make too much sense. You've got this uberly dark background, yet the girl and flower seem to be standing out in the broad daylight. I recommend some deeper shadows on the face, maybe making it appear as though they're fading into that darkness.

Also, I don't feel the flower fits there. I would do one of two things-- take it out altogether and make some abstract hair strands in the background, or adding in some of the colours of the flowers into the background to make it tie in better.

The colours of the piece are scatterred, a little too miscellaneous. You have brown hair, pink skin, blue and purple flower, and blue eyes. Now, contrast is great, but you havve a little too much going on here I feel. This explanation, I'm afraid, is going to get complicated.

I'm noticing on her skin tone that, when going darker, you're using a shade of the same hue throughout the skin. Don't. <img src="e.deviantart.com/emoticons/l/l…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title="LOL" /> When colouring, never use just one hue on anything. For example, when I'm colouring skin, I use (on average) 20 some odd hues, ranging from pinks, to reds, to tans, to browns. It may sound odd, but look closely at your skin. The reason everyone uses different hues for skin colour is that it's usually a combination of these. Your skin is a prism of colour. Now, look at the darkest shade on your skin. It's not deep magenta, is it? (If so, I recomment calling a doctor.) More than likely, it's brown. I'd like to see you bring in more hues to the skin tone to really bring it alive.

Also, her facial features seem a bit off. The cheek seems to be too angular, and come "in" to the jaw too soon. Also, the jaw seems a bit too long. (I can't judge by your reference, as the link doesn't work Dx)

Finally, I feel her hair is a bit rough. Those that read my critiques grow tired of me saying this, but-- when doing a hair strand, try this. Mentally pick a general path for it, and then just go quickly, picking up at the end, giving it a tapered effect and keeping the flow nice and smooth. It won't be exactly as you planned, but the path should be satisfactory. If it's not, then just Ctrl+Alt+Z that batch and try again <img src="e.deviantart.com/emoticons/w/w…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Wink)" /> Also, I think the strands along the face need a bit of a shine on them.

You really have wonderful vision as to where the shades and highlights should be, something not many artists these days do. Your work really is beautiful, dear <img src="e.deviantart.com/emoticons/w/w…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Wink)" />