Good morning Katherine!!!
I’m so sorry I couldn’t get to this sooner, but I was determined to wrap up that latest painting, so I let much of my correspondence go unanswered for a few days.
Your pushing of the darks here is SOOOOO much better. The differences (or contrasts) that you are pushing between the lights and darks is a big step in the right direction where such representations are concerned. If you feel you may have gone too dark in an area, as you mentioned, consider this before you remove material: check that the context around said the area is “dark enough.” Many times, artists will keep themselves in an “under-modeled” realm in which the darkest darks are not established as usefully as they can be—with resulting judgments leading to applied values looking non-committal at best.
Before you change anything—make that hair dark as you already stated. THEN, see if the slightly lighter darks next to it are “dark enough.” Continue in this way until you get to the light regions that you currently think may be too dark—and you might find you are not that dark at all (in a more developed context.)
When I work, I engage in a good deal of dynamic squinting. This is different than the traditional method of squinting to see general light-dark patterns better. It helps me to evaluate certain values in their respective context more effectvely. You can read about it in this entry here:
Looking forward to seeing more Katherine!!!
Anthony