I am particularly attracted by the outline the figure carves on the background. The design of the composition is balanced, dynamic and inviting.
Your skillful treatment of the mass of the head tells me that you possess the rare ability to separately look at the subject as mass and as light falling on mass.
I was at the
Legion of Honor museum in SF recently looking at portraits and it occurred to me as a revelation that those big guys (Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Rubens), painted the human face as if they were painting monuments seen from afar. The nose and ears protrude and cast shadows on the surface of the face as would promontories on the side of a mountain. The concave forms are like valleys and their shadows have few sharp edges as is typical of distant scenes.
They painted monuments to their sitters! I've been since on the lookout for that phenomenon in contemporary paintings and see it here to your credit.