I just finished a painting of three girls, but it is a gift so the reveal will have to wait until after it has been given to its recipient, since that person happens to be a fan of my FB page. 😊  All that is left is to wait for it to flatten and dry, then sign it and get it framed. Lessons learned from this project:

• Drawing faces is hard, even if I did use tracing paper to trace the photo and then use that as a guide while drawing.  No, I did not trace onto the painting this time.  I used the tracings to put them over the drawing to see how I was doing with freehand drawing, and make corrections.  If the tracing showed the drawing was way off, I'd erase and correct, then check it against the tracing again, etc., etc., until I was satisfied.  I was still off a bit on some things, but I got to the point where I needed to accept the minor errors or I'd be at it forever.
• While working on the first girl, I started with shadows and her skin, then moved on to her eyes, with hair & clothes being last.  I wasn't really happy with that method, so I switched it up on the next girl and worked shadows, then eyes, then skin, hair and clothes. It seems to flow better when starting with the eyes.  That and with eyes, it makes it look less creepy to stare at the rest of the time I'm working on the painting.
• I worked extra hard on the third girl's hair, which left the first two's hair looking underworked, so I had to circle back and put more effort into their hair so they or the third one didn't seem too out of place.  In the future, if there are more than one subject in the painting, I'll be sure to let the first one be the guide to how the second's painting style will be. Maybe.  I probably won't. LOL
• Even though I didn't think it was supposed to do it, the Arches art board I chose for this project warped.  Which is why I had to wet the background and put it face down on a table with something heavy in an attempt to flatten it. I have three more of those that will probably do the same thing when I use them.  Hooray.  I'm thinking I won't be buying any more of those.
• Drawing faces is hard.  I need more practice.

Hopefully the painting will flatten, if not completely, then at least to a degree more flat than it is in its current state.  Framing it will probably help, too. Onto my next project...whatever that may be.