Hope, a friends Daughter by David Melrose

I think you probably need to work on the skintones some more David, the hair is great, and the eyes, but the skintone of her face and lips could do with more work and seems to be to much variation between her neck area colour and her arms, maybe you used a bit too much blue or purple tone that shows through

Hi David, a good first attempt! Portrait are not easy and to be honest with you I've not done one for many years, mainly due to my obsession with birds. :-) As Ros said the skin tones need working on but it may be worth testing ideas out on say a play bit of canvas/board. I used to paint all the detail thinly in monochrome first using say vandyke brown/ultramarine blue, then once dry overlay the detail with transparent colours. Look deep into the skin tones and see what is there, it's amazing when you see the variety of reds, browns, pinks, blues, yellows and even the odd bit of green!

Very good first attempt David and very good comments above. Ros has said it very well about the skin colour and Paul about how to start painting a portrait. For me it is also the difference between shadows and light. The little girl in sitting outside so the light has to come from somewhere and here it's coming from the right. It works beautifully on her left arm but not so well on her right arm. Same goes for the face and neck, a bit too pale. The dress is fantastic and her position too! Good work all in all!