I tried a different technique this time.

1. I painted in colour from the start instead of using greyscale then painting colour on overlay layers.
2. Apart from the fall leaves brush I used a fuzzy brush throughout.
3. I kept most layers throughout instead of merging immediately.
4. I didn't draw first, I started painting straight away, starting with the eyes then working outwards.

Wow. I'm impressed. Everything looks very symetrical. Great job!

That's a very good painting Erisian, with the pose, eyes and expression adding a bit of mystery.

erisian, this is impressive in so many ways i don't know what to comment . you painted without outlining first? you're actually sort of scary sometimes! i agree with odinbc about her expression, you did a great job of making her a personality.

but really, coffeeman - what fairy with self respect would wear pinkish eye shadow with fall leaf jewellery and a green dress?! you made that up yourself, and when she sees what you did you'd better watch out!

Excellent, Erisian!!!

Very nice Erisian, I love the skin, it seems so translucent.

Really good result Erisian.

Waua!
Nice!
I like how her skin has the "tight" look to it, I do think her hair could be a wee bit more detailed, but that's probably preference.

Her eyes seem a bit too soft in comparison to the "tight" skin, imo.

The earrings seem that unless you have wind they look a little odd, I don't see any indications of wind other than the earring, but I could be blind (which is entirely possible ).

The skin tones not on the face seem a bit dull in comparison, maybe a little highlight (?), but still good!

All in all I like it! I wish I could make skin tones like that in realistic.
For not having a sketch first, I'm reallllllllllyyyy impressed!
Now I need to go mess with Gimp and make something , thanks! LOL

Really really good!

Thank you very much everybody.

Mokonafan - I still can't do hair very well so any attempt at more detail would have ruined it. The earring needs changing. Maybe a touch more highlight in the body skin but definitely a little more red. I could sharpen up the eyes a little but I don't want her to look harsh.

AnMal - Pinkish eye shadow - well I was in two minds about that but fall leaf jewelry and a green dress are perfectly acceptable to fairies. I should know, I have eight of them and they talk to me every day. The style of dress is perhaps a bit modern but hey - in fantasy land you can do whatever you like. Thank you for the lovely flowers.

Improvements are on their way.

I've made a few improvements. See first post.

you should have kept the first version for comparison! i can see the earring changed straight off and i think you did something to the eyes because they look more defined but any other changes are lost on me .

(and i will say it: she still wears the wrong eyeshadow for her outfit and general style. sigh, when will the world understand the importance of eye shadow?!)

This is strange because when I had my colors done years ago, I was told that I am a summer, which means no greens, earth colors, yellow or white. I was to wear mostly plum colored eye shadow and blush, no corals or orange shades. So what I understand, it doesn't matter what color the clothes are the eye shadows should match the persons skin tones.

How about no eyeshadow? Fairies do not need makeup, they are too beautiful in and of themselves. I don't wear eyeshadow, ever, because it always finds it's way into my eyes and drives me crazy.

2-ton: oh, but make up isn't there to make you more beautiful, it's there so you can have more colours in your life to play with ! that's the whole point and the only point with make up as i see it. i can totally understand why you don't use eye shadow, though - i don't have any problems with eye shadow getting into my eyes, but mascara always does, so i just don't use it.

In that case, pink eyeshadow works!

2-ton: hehe, erisian will kick me out of the thread soon enough for taking up so much of it with the eye shadow discussion but i can't resist . pink eye shadow works with most things and my own pink eye shadows are probably my most used. i wouldn't use it with an autumn colour scheme though, and i'm very sure that fairy wouldn't. she looks like she'd be very aware that pink was neither a matching tone nor a complementary tone to any of the colours in her outfit and she'd be annoyed by that. my guess is she'd have worn some light but warm colour (light green, light golden or an apricot perhaps) with a slightly darker brown in the crease and corners.

haha, and Erisian is supposed to know all these little make-up tricks? I don't much about make-up myself!

Well done!

This is very nice work.