Echoing the sentiments on how well your choice of paper color enhanced the mood. I'd also like to point out how expressive you made this. I was surprised at how little facial detail there was when I started to really look at this piece - there's so much emotive power to it, yet you managed to convey most of it just through the pose, composition, and color. Really neat to study as well as look at.
Thank you @see.feel.write!
The lack of detail in cetain areas is something I'm just starting to put into practice. It was something that I was failing on for a long time when attempting to render something realistically. Each of us has a brain that is wonderfully equiped to filter the vast amount of input our senses feed it, otherwise we'd be lost in the details of life. Mind you, in certain situations that has its downside as well. However for the artist, it is a huge bonus. Because the imagination of the viewer will always be greater than the skill of the artist, and will render all of the superfelous details if provided the correct visual prompts. Therein lies the magic of painting. It is a visual slight of hand, working very much as a stage magician trick does. Look over there, while I do this over here, and hey presto, the illusion unfolds.
It's been really interesting to see this put into practice, thank you for sharing it with us.