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Hi Mike, strong image, I always know more clearly what to comment on in a critique when the artist posts the reference photo. Yours is beautiful, but strong backlight can be challenging. The reference that comes to mind is a pastel of Chris Saper's titled "Manisha". It's in her book, but I'm not sure it's in her online portfolio. Perhaps she could post it here? I'm not sure about copyright infringement, permission required, et cetera. It's a good example, however, and would be worth your time to view it. With that in mind, it seems you could darken most of your fleshtones and give them the violet and mauve hues that permeates the shadowed face in the photograph. The contrast between the lit side of the child's face and the shadowed side could go a lot stronger and more dramatic.
I also enjoyed your comments on the other struggles this portrait represented in your growth: different oil mediums seem to be one tough method to learn. I recently read about stand oil at the same time that I was reading about oiling out, or the method where masters would "rewet" a canvas or passage with medium before starting a days work, to give them lubricated canvas to paint into. So my response was to "oil out" the canvas by rubbing in newly purchased, thick, stand oil. Then I (bonehead) painted into that. Turns out stand oil is far too "fat" to use alone as a medium, and that nothing will stick to this surface.
Anyway, Karin Wells posted sage advise about putting in 40-hour painting weeks if you truly are driven to learn. So here's a lot of slow but good lessons for us to learn.
-Mari
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