[Chris Saper]

Julie,

I very much like what is happening in this portrait! I like the unconventional lighting you have used...your light source looks very cool, and I think your skin tones work very well. For the sake of finish, I think I'd consider warmer reds in the under planes of the chin and nose, the latter of which will help define the shape of the tip of the nose more clearly.

I agree that the scale of the dress is perhaps too large. The red dress is too similar in shape and size to the draped background. Its powerful color will balance the painting well, I think, if you paint her shoulders in a more oblique position, letting the draped painting continue to the bottom of the picture, with fewer square inches devoted to the red shape. You have a beautiful color scheme going on, and simple, strong passages of value, giving the whole thing a very strong design, and I think some tiny changes can make it even more so. As an alternative, you might add a shawl over her shoulder on our left, similar in value and color to the background to diminish the amount of space the red dress takes...

I am also really nitpicking, but only because I think you are doing such a great job.