Noob painter

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Wanting some critiques, this is my first painting digital or otherwise and took about 2 hours. Eyes are really giving me troubles so if anyone could give me pointers there it would be appreciated.

[sickelsick]

the picture is really bright. try to bring the contrast down some. its soo bright i dont see the nose. i just see the holes.

the lips edges are too hard. soften them up. use a brush with soft edges to do that.

add some shadows where its needed so it can give some depth to it.

it seems real blurry. u use the blur tool? if u did u used it TOO much.

try to practice on some eye studies.

do me a favor and crit my portrait a few posts down. no1 is posting anything for it.. its my first portrait too!

[grantrl78]

It looks nice.
Using a ref photo is tricky.
It is hard to see the form of the face because photographers
flatten out the lights alot. Look at the photo in black and white to better see the form.
Use the grayscale painting as a base and add colors to it .

[Continuum]

Thanks for the tips, I like the b&w one btw, Ive used that when making skins but didnt think of using it for this. Also have inverted the b&w before.