To me you nailed it! A bit more value range and storytelling could perhaps improve it.

Minimal brush strokes are just looking awesome :O

Hey James, looks good so far. I will suggest not using black, its a bit unnatural and loses the atmosphere in a piece. It reads as if there is no environment, ambient light or bounce light. Also focus on creating a hierarchy and composition with your values. Everywhere at the moment seems to be treated similarly. There's a few edges that seemed to counter the flow a bit for instance the brush stroke on the tip of the nose. It also seems the nose is out of perspective. Try to line it up with the eyebrows, chin, lips etc. I think practicing shadow mapping can really help with the design of the shadows. Lastly the background seems a bit out of place. It doesn't quite interact with the piece. Having a lost edge or for areas you don't seem to think are too important can start to build a hierarchy and focus. Look forward to seeing how you improve. Keep up the good work

Nice portrait James! I like the separation of light and shadow, very clear. Two minor critiques: the nose appears to be on a different line to the lips and eyes. I say 'appears' because it looks like just an illusion of the strokes there and not that you got it wrong... Also, the chest line down from the neck looks out of place, very flat and straight and looks like it's over the top of her jacket.

This is awesome @James Doane. The one thing that I can think to give a critique on would be edge variation. There's two ways that artists can use digital brushes to achieve soft edges. One way is to constantly color pick, and make gradual brush strokes in between values to give the illusion of that smooth value transition. The other would be to use either a brush with a soft edge, or something like the smudge tool, to soften up your harder edges. Since the point of your exercise was to try to use as little brush strokes as possible, you're probably limited to the second option. I think softening up the form shadows in the face, as well as softening up the edges within your large shadow areas (such as the area between the neck and hair) could help punch up the image a bit more. All in all however, I love how your drawing feels really solid, even when limiting yourself to the biggest brushstrokes you could have used. This seems like a great exercise!

If it is useful to add something to Aiden. Is that your value arrangment in general is the opposite if you want to get the attention of the viewer on the up part of the canvas. If you see, you have more datils, but the contrast of the big shapes under it, mainly background and those really dark zones, compite for the attention. Hope to be helpful