Samirakate

This picture immediately caught my attention. Her pose and the softness in her face are just wonderful especially contrasted to the dark shading around her.

The folds in the clothing are excellently done. They're just dark enough that you can get the sense of the wrinkles, but not so dark that they're overpowering or look fake. The dress itself and the tulle on the shoulders has just enough detail that it doesn't over power her face.

The eyes could use a bit more definition and depth to them though. Use the crease above her eyes to your advantage to bring attention to her eyes. A bit more detail in her iris themselves would also help. I would have liked to see more detail in the hair as well drawing the lines toward each other to make a brighter highlight and maybe a few out of place strands.

Overall though I really do like this piece. I hope to see you keep improving!!!

Thanks so much  
You're definitely right about the background being boring though. I'm slowly but surely working on drawing a Tardis back there. Maybe some other stuff as well. 

There's no question that this is an absolutely beautiful piece.
I love the change in colors you did from the original photo, it brings a warmth to the picture.

There are two things that throw me off though and take my focus away from the overall picture. First is the lips, which don't seem to blend with the rest of the drawing. I think it may be that as the lips go to the other side of the face they need to become much lighter, but instead they are still dark with shadows. The second is the right eye. It doesn't have as much depth to it as the left and seems somewhat unfinished. Based on the reference picture you should be able to see the dark outline of the cornea right next to the nose, and a slight bag under the eye like you see on the left one.

Overall though this drawing really caught my attention and is wonderfully done. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/a/a…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="349" title="Aww"/>

I need to check DA more often... I'm 5 days late XD