i think your skin shadows are too brown i mean they could be more redish

Looking back, I should have titled this post "How Do I Continue?" or "How Do I Improve These Paintings?" Thanks!

There is a lot I like about your work, I think the porportions are good, I like the drawing and composition overall. But I Think the reason your painting are not looking very natual is that there is too much constrast in many parts of both paintings. I did a quick demonstration, the number 1 in the picture is showing a part I belive there is too much constrast. And the part 2 is just an example of a part of the picture I belive would be better to have very similar values. I would strongly recommend you to watch the first two episodes of Marco Bucci's "10 mintues to better painting." I think I can't put links here. But you should find it easily on youtube. I think the videos will explain what I'm trying to show you in a much better way. Great job overall, hopefully It was helpful. Cheers!

Hi Ziwei, I wont be able to help that much but I have something to share. Image #1 you ask how to continue. You absolutely could continue. But is that the best use of your time and ability? I don't know. I would think not. You tried 4 different styles of the same painting. That's exactly the thing you want to try. I would say the picture works in all 4. it's been a few years right? why not just draw something else? Maybe you're really attached to Image #1. I would say paint her again from scratch. You get to draw it again differently and with a bit more experience in rendering and all things art. A few things that prevent smooth flow in image #1 Starting from the background. Those dark window dividers are too dark. If you want to keep the atmosphere light then you would want to lighten those window dividers. If you're starting over from scratch you have the chance to maybe do some more variations on lighting in the background give the light and dark a chance to dance. Just keep in mind the background will have less contrast then the foreground. Something about the hair hanging down on the right side of her face. it looks like its closer to us then her face is. I think it might be to much detail and contrast, it overwhelms her face. Someone else might have a better idea what to do there. Her right arm is to much like her left and looks painted on. Its almost like the problem a tangent would give you. her left arm grows into her right. like fixing a tangent you would want to change the positions of one or both arms. If you start from scratch you'll be have more options. Her right arm is fantastic though. Great job. Oh well except that its floating on the table. I think if her hands rested on the table it would work better. I don't know there's a few things that could use adjustment but common you did a great job. I love that metallic lamp. Image #4 Theres a huge improvement in your abilities. just amazing work. you should feel good about this one. There's a lot to like about it. You even have the green light from the plants bouncing on to her dress ever so slightly. the fabric looks fantastic. I literally could go on complementing you that's how good this is. But I really miss critiquing. However there's not much I can say. 2 things that stand out to me are her right arm and her clean feet and the pristine dirt. That arm could be a little smaller. The angle of this shot would make her arm shorter. If we were looking at her at eye level and she had the same pose you would have the proportions spot on, but at this angle and that hand being the farthest part of her body...the foreshortening would make everything from her hand to her elbow ever so slightly smaller. I don't think I would be able to get it right the first time. I would have to try different lengths before it looked right. while your at it give some attention to the spot were it looks like her chin is touching her right arm. I think it would be fixed by adjust the saturation and contrast values in that area. I might be wrong but to me that arm looks bigger than it should be. It would be because of the angle, you're proportions are spot on but the angle distorts things a bit. It looks like you took that into consideration when you painted her left forward leg. That thing is massive but it looks right because of the angle. Because of foreshortening The ground should have scuff marks or foot prints, tire tracks, puddles? I dont know how you should do it, but it needs some evidence that its ground, I mean other then the color and sunflowers are growing out it. Something else that might be neat. Spots of lights peaking through the sunflower leaves and hitting the ground. don't make them too bright though. I think it would open things up under there. That might be nice. And her foot is too clean. Probably don't need to say anymore about that. Lastly, isn't a big deal, It falls into the category of composition. Ill tell ya my idea but it's not hurting your image by ignoring this suggestion. along the line created by the sunflower garden, in front of her the plants are sharpened and the plants behind her have been blurred. My guess is you wanted to push back farther the area behind her and bring the area in front of her closer without changing the angle of that flower line. I would say that's an excellent thought. I think you can push that blur even more. She frolicking through the garden, hopping and skipping. Shes moving fast. you can use that blur more to push that back in a compositional way Making that area more blurry would make it less interesting to the viewer and that makes it to fall back . Just make sure you're using the blur as motion blur, not distance blur. If I were you Id consider doing the same thing to her back foot/ lower leg area.