Autumn

This image has been submitted to EliteArtists Autumn contest. My painting is about the wonder and magic of the transformation that the season brings and inspires.

Updated October 18, 2012 to try and incorporate some of the wonderful suggestions from Celairen, but I may still need to work on it...

Updated again September 2015.

This was my reference photo, by Piotr Stryjewski: 1x.com/photo/38875

And I have a guilty confession: I traced the outline of some of the features (one eye, part of the lips and a nostril) and the outline of the hand. I know it's taboo, but in my defence, I'm 1) at least being honest about it here and giving credit to the original photographer; and 2) I only traced part of the features because in the original photo, the hand is actually covering half her face so I still had to recreate the other half entirely on my own (at least that's something, right?). But everything else was drawn and painted by me. So, there you have it. That's my mea culpa. Judge me harshly if you will... I deserve it.