Thank you Mike for your reply!

Of course I forgot the photo at my mother's house yesterday, but I'm posting the changes I have done so far on the field.

As soon as I started to blur up the field it got better, it's hard to see on the screen maybe. I will post a closeup of the background-field.

I am still not pleased with the foreground-field.

The camera makes it a little pixeled, it is somewhat smoother in reality.

Hanna,

To make your images more clear, don't compress your jpg file so much when you save it. There's an option for greater or less compression when you save your file.

Hanna, as Chris mentioned earlier, I'd still like to see more influence from all that green grass. It should affect the colors on the figure, especially his clothes. The downward facing planes and the lower areas should be much more green because of what's around them. Also the transiton between his shirt and pants seems somewhat harsh to me and could be softened somewhat.

Otherwise, a very nice piece. I always enjoy seeing your work.

Using Photoshop I laid a "glaze" of green over the whole figure, with the exception of the top of his head, to show you what I mean. The lower parts have more green on them.

This way the piece seems to have more color unity and the boy looks like he's really in that field, in that light.

Hanna, Nice work!

You said, "I

My loosest painting, and in some ways still my favorite, was done after I'd consumed a couple of glasses of wine. I was working a "real" job in Philadelphia and the company had an after-work party.

It was the evening I was supposed to go to a class I was taking at the Philadelphia Academy of Art. Having those two glasses of wine and knowing I was working on a still life that was only going to be set up for one session definitely caused me to paint with abandon.

I suppose the wine contributed some "liquid courage" that gave me more confidence in my eye and hand that evening too.

Hi everybody!

After a few alterations I am now pretty much finished. I will probably not change it any more unless some of you sees something that should be changed.

Lon, I think you are totally right about forcing yourself to see what is important through quick live studies. I will start a thread in the "open studio" section where I will post a few portraits/sketches/drawings of a girl named Helena. I would love your input there too. :)

Here is the whole piece:

Michele and Chris, I had icluded some green and yellow colors before as well but I found some more places to put them. One touch of yellow that really brought it together was in the front of his hair.

Here is a closeup of his face:

I forgot to say that the camera has flattened out the lights and grained the picture up somewhat, but hopefully you will see what I mean.

I also liked the reflection of the flowers on the top of his hand, here is a closeup:

And also, thank you all so much for helping me to make this portrait better and for leading me on my way forward. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!