[Brenda Ellis]

Hi Deborah,

Now, keep in mind I'm a newbie so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

The two things that I notice are:
-You've got her forehead a bit too straight; it is more slanted and looks slightly more arced at the top in the photo.
-Her arm is a bit too thin down at the bottom in the painting. She looks like she has a little more flesh on her arm in the photo.

Two things I notice that may be intentional choices on your part are: Her hair glitters a bit more in the photo. Her shadows on her cheek are darker in the photo.

I like this a lot. I love your attention to detail on the sailboat rigging. And the lake in the background looks perfect. I'm wondering if you would want to play more with hard and soft edges? Every edge is very well defined. Her figure draws focus for me because of the saturated colors in her skin vs. the pale colors in the rigging and background. I don't necessarily focus on her face though. This may be fine because there are a lot of interesting things going on in the painting. I think it's interesting that you painted her with sunglasses on. (Of course anyone would wear sunglasses in this situation!) It's reminding me of Nagel slightly. The photo is great in composition and it looks almost stylized. My hat is off to whoever took the photo. You?

I love your modern, sharp style.