Acrylic from 1918 b/w photo

[Yakov Afanasyev]

Thanks Cynthia, Yoshiharu and David!

I appreciate very much your very specific comments. I think I will let the painting sit till Sunday and then try and incorporate your suggestions.

The background is quite dark indeed (although the scan is a bit more contrast than the actual painting). Perhaps I should lighten it to some degree.

The boy's gaze bothered me for a while but then I get used to it and started to like it. Actually it seems that they both look slightly above and to the left of the camera (the boy is more so) in the photograph. Perhaps they followed the instructions of the photographer. Photographers do it to avoid too intense staring into the objective lens.
My problem was that the photograph was small and a bit damaged so I was not able to see it in detail. I had to work from "knowledge" which I certainly lack.

Thank you again for taking time to look.

Cheers,
Yakov