Here is my latest portrait of a young Australian lady, who brought joy to many of us locals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

It could have been an excellent portrait, unfortunately the look is too "plasticky", especially the lips.
Sorry, OMG, you know I'm "crude" sometimes.

Diego - thank you for your comment; I am not quite sure what you mean about 'plasticky' (shiny?) and the lips were particularly difficult. I did not want to go back two weeks and start all over again, but I have made some quick changes, hopefully reducing what I think could be 'plasticky' and I have reduced the frontal brightness too given the arena floodlights behind her.

Hopefully you may see this as an improvement?

EDIT - this image replaces previous one posted here and has been updated to reflect further changes, gleaned from posts below. Actually, the extended lips were present all the time but had been absorbed by the too dark shadows. I did modify their size/shape slightly and reduced the amount of shadow in the mouth corners.

Sorry to have used a word which does not express what I meant (I tried to translate the Italian "plasticoso", using Google, it means that the surface seems to be covered by a slight foil of plastic, like when women use too much cream over the skin).
About the lips I attach here what I would prefer to see as lip texture.

Excellent minimalist approach to your sketches, OMG. Just wish this could be done by filter (you know me; a filter guy; lol).

Lyle - thank you for your comment about the sketch portraits; I like them too because they are quick and easy compared to the full artistic portraits

Diego - my daughter said to me, not all lips are the same; I did say that I found the lips difficult, probably because they were not typical Caucasian lips. Many races, including indigenous Australians, have differing lip shapes, structure and textures. Here is a snippet from my reference photo that I used for the portrait.

You know what you paint.
I could only comment based on my taste and "western" knowledge.

I don't know but like @dinasset, the mouth is... a no (sorry about that)
I saw the original picture > https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/bc6 ... 11cae4f894
And yes there is something wrong with the mouth (again sorry about that), something like "over" or something "too much...."
When I saw your portrait the first time it was the thing which pops up to me, the mouth is wrong...
I am not painter, drawer, so please just take it as an external view/opinion from some one which do not know how to draw (roughly i'm just a m.r.n )

I'm not an artist either so it's hugely better than I could ever attempt. However the thing that struck me is the ends of the top lip seem too well defined as I don't think their bottom edge stops like that, it rather disappears into shadow. I tried indicate this with the same guides and path on both photo and scaled portrait:

Now seeing side by side, I think that a (drop)shadow from the upper lip to the gum would help as well.

Diego, Teapot and PixLab - thank you for taking an interest in my work and also for your comments, observations and recommendations.

There is a truism that the closer you are the less you can see

I have now updated the already once modified image in post #143 above to hopefully take into account your observations and better reflect reality.

I think that's an improvement OMG

Yes, it is much better.

Teapot and Isabella - thank you; the journey continues

Look up Borodante on youtube. His journey from tiny steps into where he is today, might give you a clue as to what is possible to achieve:
https://www.youtube.com/c/boroCG/videos

Sketch portrait of Mr Bean (aka actor/comedian Rowan Atkinson).

I recognized him before I'd read your explanation
Well done, OMG

I recognized him too. Really good OMG

Ella and Teapot - thank you; I appreciate your feedback.

Thanks OMG, I recognized him at once, too