Hattie's Sister Phoebe by Mike Rome

I think this is an excellent portrait - love the pose and the monochrome which is so effective. However, can I presume to mention one slight problem I seem to be having when I view it and that is the very defined dark half moon around the left nostril. I find that it doesn't matter how I try and make my eye move around the painting, my focus comes back to that shape straight away. Now you many have intended that to happen (in case job done), but I find it a little distracting. The rest of the shadowing on the face is quite soft and light, especially around the jawbone, etc and this dark shapes seems a bit at odds with it. However, a minor niggle in what is otherwise a very impressive piece of work.

Thanks for your comments Thea. Yes, you're quite right. In my defence, I will say that area does appear stronger in the photo than on the canvas - think I should have tweaked the contrast a little more before I loaded it onto my site. May go back and adjust it sometime. Sadly I'm not the best photographer in the world.

Hi Mike, Photographing work is a nightmare, I agree. It takes me about a dozen different views and exposures to photograph one of mine successfully, and then I wonder if it is actually worth the trouble because we are all looking at the images on different screens which could be calibrated for colour differently. It may be that the image on my screen has more contrast but that may just be my individual set up. Scanners don't seem to be any better.