I'm pleased at this new addition to the section as well! And although I sense a little trepidation on Cynthia's part, I'm confident that we shall see some excellent and tasteful work come through here.
Which segues into...
Maria! Nicely done for a fairly speedy alla prima! I really like the handling of values on the torso. The left side (model's right) is really coming to the front of the picture plane convincingly.
I do agree with Allan in re: the left cheek value (too similar to the right), as well as the ear. I reserve judgment on the arm, though. And the necklace? Well - if I had done this within the same time constraints, I would never have gotten to it (I'm slow
)! So I take my hat off to you for getting it in there!
Allan also points out your good color harmony, which even moves across your background tones - very good, indeed. However, her hair is the only thing that falls out of this harmony, as it is too cool overall. Note in the closeup how the lighter parts of the hair are going blue due to what looks like a black/white mixture. Add some raw umber to the black in the light plane, and you'll be able to pull highlights in a neutral-warm instead of gray-blue.
These are small, but fairly important, yet not that much more work! You got the majority of work in there quite well and it has a vibrant quality to it, giving the model real "character" as opposed to an academic study.
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