Maura (study) Painting

I had wanted to paint this friend of mine for a long time, and was so happy when I finally got the chance to do it. She has a fiery personality, and is an all around great person. I think that comes across in this painting, particularly in her green eyes. As the natural light changed from various directions while I painted her, there were some nice little areas that appeared which weren't there in the beginning. When the sun came out for a while and shown in through the window behind her, the shadows of the curls of her hair cast onto her skin on the left, and the gold sheen of the light on her hair showed up on the left side. I loved how these things came out as well as the little patches of light at the sides of her face. This painting was created on archival panel.