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Wow, what a beautiful reference to get to start with.
Incidentally, I was just goofin' on you a little about the hands. The sleeves pulled up and over like that are extremely descriptive of character, especially -- in my recent experience as the dad of a teen-age girl -- someone this age. To have asked her to pull her sleeves back so you could see her hands would have completely changed the character of the piece and, I think, robbed it of a bit of its charm.
(This brings to mind, though, a old and probably inaccurately-recalled Peanuts strip in which the characters are drawing figures and it's noted that Charlie Brown has drawn his with the hands behind the back. Various pyschological theories are posited by other characters for this choice, but Charlie Brown finally simplifies the matter by saying that he just did it that way because he can't draw hands.)
Anyway, the photo does confirm a couple of things, such as the relatively lighter tone in that triangle of light between her forearms. Also, it's clear that the light in the painting indeed does come too far around the arm on our right and too far up on that arm toward the face -- that's what's creating the strong contrast in values between the sleeve and the face, the former's too light and the latter's a little dark. Also, see how the light comes across her forehead just a little more, how the shadow line dips to the right as it moves over the brow (rather than proceeding in a straight line), how the line under the bottom lip moves over to the right for a moment before coming back to the shadow on the chin.
One of the optical illusions that, I think, permitted me to think her elbows were resting on her knees had to do with somehow making the table top into the floor, with the dark line of contrast being the point at which the floor and wall met behind her. I think that, besides working on the reflections in the table top, it might be helpful to go ahead and put that chair back and partial picture frame into your painting, for spatial reference.
I think the inside corners of both eyes are too high, giving them that almond or "football" shape. The bottom lid is actually a bit straighter than the top, and they don't meet in a point at the inside corner, but instead the top drops down rather vertically at the "last second" to meet the lower lid.
That's probably enough from me, or perhaps too much.
Cheers,
Steven
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