Thank you John, and another big thanks to Jeff. I went back and checked the curl and what it was, is the shine left by the graphite reflecting from the overhead light. I took the pic with an Ott-light mounted to the easel, so most of the light is near the top of the pic.
Again, the face is also not that bright but the highlights under the eyes were intentional.
The gradation just happened, wasn't planning on it. It was first drawn with her alone, but while on vacation, I saw a picture on the hotel wall with a painted border and thought the idea was pretty cool. I happened to take 'Veronica' with me on vacation, and thought it would look good. (Did not interfere with vacation, worked on it 12am-3am) It also reminded me of Klimt's borders, who happens to be my favorite artist. My cousin Veronica had wanted a picture of herself catching roses, so she posed for some pictures, and this happened to be one where she wasn't 'posing' and I thought it looked great. Figured adding roses to the background would still keep her happy. The gradient background came as a "I gotta do something back here" situation. She has'nt seen it yet, still have to take slides for a blowup, hope she'll like it.
If you'd like to see my other drawings, you can go
here. Thanks again.