Update

 Here is the finished commissioned piece from the last few blog posts I have been working on. 

I honestly don't know much more to say (I will, in fact, continue to have a lot to say about it regardless) other than I think this has to be my most detailed and best piece I've made so far. 

Overall, everything I have said in previous blog posts does still apply. 
For example, I think it was extremely evident the amount of struggle I went through trying to adequately paint the younger girl's face compared to anything else. Even now, when I look at this piece, I really do not love how that part of the painting turned out at all. 

Individually, I find that the features of her face are not too bad. I still do not think that, for example, her eyes or lips etc are painted objectively 'wrong'. But still, when put all together as they are now, I cannot quite describe fully why I experience the dislike I do towards this face. 

I have indeed asked numerous people of differing levels of being both artists and non-artists and nobody really seems to feel the same intensity I do about this girl's face. 
Generally the consensus, even from my client as well, was that it looks good. 
In reflection, I do suppose the most important part is of course if my client is happy with their art or not. Which, he was. 

So, now I do wonder if my feelings are somewhat just because I am the artist behind this piece. I don't think it is too unheard of: artists always seemingly being unhappy with their work without reason.
I know that a few years ago I used to feel this way much more intensely than I do now. Of course, a few years ago means that I did not have the skills I do now - as egotistical as it may sound - but, of course, one's skills can only ever improve, so is this not natural? 

At the end of any project, be it 2D or 3D, I do like to ask myself: "what would I change or do differently, now with the knowledge I have?"

Asking myself this now, I can only really still point out that girl's face. 
But, I still do not know how or what I would exactly do differently at all, since I know that I did exactly do and reference what it was my commissioner provided to me and what he specifically asked for. 

As well, I know that in a previous blog post I already spoke about the rather atrocious (it is not really atrocious in my mind, but I guess I am being dramatic about it) amount of time I had already spent changing and painting this girl's face over the course of this piece anyhow. 

So then, now I wonder in trying to answer this question, would it not theoretically have been even more counter-productive to continue going back and forth with the girl's face even more than I already did?
But that is all I can suggest, once more, by trying to answer my own question of: "what would I change or do differently, now with the knowledge I have?"

So... At this point, I come to the conclusion that it would in fact not have been better to do such a thing. 

Perhaps I may not have been satisfied with it for various reasons I don't really even fathom at the moment.

I feel like I have also come to another conclusion from this piece when it comes to working professionally as opposed to creating art that I personally find appealing: I do not need to be satisfied with it. 
Of course, this will be an ideal balance, won't it? 
But this sentiment is one I have also always heard echoed throughout the games industry anyway, regardless of role or specialism: you may not always have that dream project to work on. 

Maybe this evaluation sounds too negative but I genuinely do not view this as something with negative connotations, more so just an objective fact. 

I think that there is an important differentiation between working on something professionally and working on something for leisure or to build up a skillset. If I wanted to ensure I am going beyond my comfort zone and intentionally getting better at my or any craft, I feel like that is better suited to work that goes into this 'leisure' category. 

Professional work, at the end of the day and taking away any embellishments or labels surrounding this concept, is truly only really to satisfy another; to complete a brief. 
This is fundamentally what I did with this piece. So then by that standard, I could then say I did achieve what I was meant to do. 
I don't think it would've actually been that worth it in the end to rework the face over and over just to perhaps suit personal taste of mine when all this would've realistically done is just extend the wait time for my client who was already fine with what I had. 

Well - disregarding how I feel about the girl's face... 
I do really like how everything else turned out! I think the woman has to be the best I've painted so far. I love especially how her face, hair, and her dress turned out. 

Here is a collage of some of the steps I took at the end to try to enhance the finished piece as well. The first one is the original painting without anything added on top, and you can see that I start to add some shadows and a dust effect on top. I then finish by adding a frame.