From the Painting Guide: As with Girl Praying you've a lovely graphic quality to this painting and once you've got all the shadows working it'll be a striking portrait. I think the area around the eyes and eyebrows works very well, but find the shadows on the cheeks and around the nose awkward. Take another look at the shadows on the nose of your reference photo; given where the light is coming from, there should be shadow beneath the nose and on the right-hand side, but not on the left (left and right on the face, not as you're looking at it). Don't be afraid to let the left-hand side of the nose meld into the highlight on the cheek – having shadow on one side is enough for us to 'interpret' it as a nose, we don't need it outlines on both sides. Also take a look at where the shadow under the jawline extends to on your reference photo and you'll see that it continues under the chin, giving this definition.

With regards to the colour on the right cheek, there are two things not working for me. The first is that the shadow lines don't follow the contour of the cheek and give it a feeling of flatness where I'd expect curvature on a face. This is particularly so with the band which touches the eye and I'd be tempted to extend the highlight on the cheek up around the eye. The shadows on the left cheek give a lovely feeling of the form of the cheek. This is more evident in the greyscale photo of your painting (see below) which eliminates the 'distraction' of the actual colours. If you look at the very roughly altered version of your painting below you'll see that by angling the bands on the right cheek slightly more there's a greater feeling of the curvature of a face. The second thing that doesn't work for me is that the colour bands go from a dark tone, to a light tone, then to a dark tone again. I'd expect the bands to go from light to dark. The outlining of the bands with a thin dark line I find distracting.

What I'd suggest is that you first do a monochrome tonal study (you could do this quickly with pencil) to establish where the lights and darks are, and to get the structure and form working. Block in the main areas using only five tones (very light, light, medium, dark, extremely dark). Then mix five equivalent tones of flesh colour and refer to your tonal study as you apply the colour. Try to focus on the tone rather than colour and be bold about making areas very dark or very light. Use the same tones on the neck as the face so the two tie in together.

Greyscale	Original	Roughly altered in a paint program

One other part of the painting which feels unfinished is the edge of the shirt on the left which cuts the flesh rather than enfolds it; some shadow should resolve this. I hope this all helps; do send in another photo of the painting when you get it working for you.