[WIP] More faces, questions and help...

[Gunne]

I was not sure if I should post this, but I think I might need some help, shadingwise. 2 days ago my GF asked me to do a portrait of her face, well of course I would . I used a picture as reference for the outlines and did shading from scratch. Before I go to the otherside of the face,  I need some help on the shading, I don't know if it's good shading and dithering. The lips are not finished yet, same goes for the nose and I think I could need some more contrast on the darker areas, well take a look yourself:
                                                    Coloured her a bit:                        Latest Version:
 

I may say this, I can't show the picture I used as reference because I sure know my GF won't like it if I do, so I'm not asking help for likeness, but help shadingwise would be appreciated.

I was also asking myself how precise can a portrait be in pixels, with the same canvas and colors I used?? Because I don't think she looks that precise, only thing that is nearly correct is the facial expression.

thanks...

-Edit, latest verson isn't realistic anymore, actually it's more surrealistic and scary , but I like it, I wonder why it's so rough?

(probably overdithered..ugh)

[pkmays]

I'd be more than happy to lend a helping block of text, but it's kinda hard without any images. ; ]

[Terley]

any details about her? age, has she got strong features? Is she quite slim? I dunno lol, maybe you could get away with a full detailed description looking at your reference. But I suppose you'd have to tread carefully with that too.  otherwise you've got off to a great start, as looking at what I've learned from the face Im doing atm, it looks as if you've drawn the eyes, nose, lips as if they were seperate (think segemnted was the word used), Panda's edit shows that well..

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7043/pandaeditxw0.png

ok, maybe you're shading needs more contrast too, with the dithering it will only give a textured look if you do it everywhere, aposed to just were you need to. Also with your palette It'd help to have a slight change in Hue's also to bring a bit of life into her, I wouldn't use your reference to help you with picking your palette though as you should be able to judge yourself as an artist how you want it to look, toggle your colours until you're happy. I made a quick edit on the mouth to hopefully make it look more realistic, plus an alternate pinker face, as it probably looks too yellowy.. Also I think you need another shade in between two darkest so you can add more depth without it being so visible.

[Gunne]

Thanks Terley, that was very useful, to be honest this was my first (may I say this) 'photorealistic' potrait in my whole life! I'll try another approach now, with less dithering and more contrast and different colours/shades.
Yes, I can give a few details, she is 19 and slim(but not slim in the face), and her eyes are quite big and darkbrown.

@pkmays They're back now