Concerning the static pose, I agree shall try to be in the future may be looking more for the diversity... but it was definitely a choice in order to concentrate on the essence of the regard and not the accessories... gestures, objects and so on
Concerning the values (if I well understood you call black and white tonality contrast this way) I think the bed reproduction of the camera creates that effect: normally in life the picture has a slight "sfumante" effect very "pastel" tones (values) to make it disappear a bit in the background... it was a choice which was very important to obtain that slightly mystical emotion we have when we are in front of the picture in reality... also the idea of accentuate the black point in the eyes and the dark eyebrow did not leave me too much choice concerning the strong tonality contrast.
Beautiful, it has the look of an egg tempera painting rather that a pastel. Since the painting is mostly high values, I wonder what it would look like with a darker background. Not that you should or would do that, just wondering.
Your ability to render detail is nothing short of incredible!!
Hybrid Mode
