very nice work Erisian
about fairies and make up it comes natural to me think that fairies may not need but still they may like play with make up, maybe magically emulated

Thank you everybody. Technically, 2-Ton is right. Fairies don't as a rule wear make up. PC makes a good point though. Magically emulated make up is quite plausible. My problem is if I paint a woman without make up, she always looks too much like a man. The eye shadow was purple but the layer mode I used changed it and I decided to stick with it.

LOL AnMal, you're just not going to let that eye-shadow go are you? xD

Always interesting to see more elderly people depicted - a fun variation on the fairy theme.

Some other critique was already offered, my main addition is that of lighting and skin colour. - Skin is quite a complex thing to paint, being a transparent, refractive medium. I think upping the contrasts would do a lot to give more "life" to her skin, also adding more red as well as a few more unexpected colours like purple in the shadows would go a long way.
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Griatch

Thanks for that Griatch. I did add an olive overlay layer to the deepest shadows on the face and obviously blue/grey where veins are close to the surface where the skin is tight but other than that I wouldn't know where to put colour. Perhaps I should just play around a bit and see what happens. I was worried about the reds being too bright. I paint very cautiously - maybe I should be a bit bolder. There's lots to think about.