Belinda take two

I like both. The first has some nice brushwork showing. The second is quite a bit "cleaner", but not necessarily better. Terrific work, either way.

Both are extremely good, the second looks more polished, but I’d have been happy to have hung the first one as it was.

I agree with Skylar and Andrew. Personally I prefer the face on the lhs as it has more vibrancy and I like the tonal values better

Thank you, this is really interesting. I haven’t actually done anything else to the face but I did work a lot on the shoulder area that looked previously a bit neglected. I also straightened out the shoulder area and removed the distracting bright line around the shoulder and arm area. But I can see now that this additional work made the painting look more contrived. Not that I’m disappointed in the final result as the original aim was to give a back glow through the hair which I think I achieved.

Oh and to improve my hand painting

Both good but I think you’ve improved the original particularly the shoulder and arm

I prefer the 2nd, as has been said already, it looks more polished and for me a warmer and more natural. I do like the top light on the hair of the first one though.