Allan, Mike, Chris, Julie, thank you so much for your comments.
This is the third time recently that I struggle with these set of three children, same but different. Maybe this is the time when I handled it better, and it was the time when I really ignored the concern and just went for the portraits ( you can judge for yourselves,
http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=4367 and
http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=5620).
These works are a bit of a turning point for me. I have been followed by a tutor in the past months, and she helped me improve very much as well as practically putting me out of business: she pushed me so much to work live that I found myself sometimes unable to work from photographs anymore!
In fact I have really enjoyed establishing a relationships with these young people, it was really fun, and I was surprised by how well they have handled sitting for me. Starting from photographs was actually useful, as I didn't have worries about the placement of features, and they did not need to sit perfectly still.
I made the decision to try to work live as much as I can so that the painting will show the relationship between me and the model, maybe soon I'll just leave my safety device (camera) at home.
Also for the first time I was satisfied enough as to challenge the mother's unsatisfaction on the girl's painting and somehow managed to talk her into liking it.
As, I think, all of us, I have ups and downs on my art; this is an up and I will enjoy it as long as it lasts!
Thank you again very much for viewing and making your comments
Ilaria