Vanessa by xxStuart xxFairlamb

I like the golden idea. Again the photographic process does not always do justice to dark colours. I have had the same problem with using dark brown paper for a pastel portrait of a black girl. I like the face a lot. Perhaps you should examine the anatomy of the neck and collar bone. When I first started to do life drawing I always started with the two lumps of bone at the base of the neck, where the collar bones almost meet in the front. I can't see these lumps in your drawing although I can see collar bones. Is the forearm too short? It is in front of the face and body, so should look bigger. It would be better for the elbow to be out of the picture than have the arm too short. Do you use the pencil measuring technique to check proportions?