Chris, Nick, and Gypsy

[Michele Rushworth]

Here's something you may find useful. I made the reference and the painting the same size, converted them to monochrome -- and reversed the images. The reversal will help you see the work in a fresh way. It's akin to the old masters' method of checking their work in a mirror to see errors, which is something they did all the time.

What I see in these images is that the brown eye is a bit too light and the blue eye is much too light. However, what jumps out at me even more is the overmodelling in the shirt.

Try this method with the whole painting, and the different parts of it too. It will show you lots of things to change that you will see immediately.