Joseph,
I really like the soft light in this portrait and the way you handled the textures. The tree is a wonderful element--you have successfully contained the complexity of its bark in the simplicity of the form. The head and face of your nephew are beautifully painted.
I am having trouble reading the form of the arm that is leaning on the tree. I cannot tell where the arm is within the jacket, and it appears to be bending in unnatural ways. There is an odd shadow to our left-hand side of the forearm, and the place where the sleeve meets the body of the jacket curves downward oddly.
Similarly, the legs do not appear natural. The right (far) leg might be bent at the knee and therefore propped up on a root of the tree. The left (near) leg may be going back, or it may be coming towards the viewer as if his legs were spread apart. This ambiguity is quite distracting to me, all the more so because it is echoed in the spread tree limbs at the top.
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