Very nice! Great change of painting and very skilled brushing!

its great...simply great

Brilliant.

Excellent work.

Nice result indeed. Although you already mention yourself about the background, I do think it's a bit of a pity that you made it like this. It's just not fitting enough with the foreground, which is really a good result. Is it an idea to make it all way darker like in the painting so that the very nice drawing in front will get more attention?
To the rest of the voters, check the HighRes before you vote, it has some very nice details. Good luck!

How nice! You've done really interesting changes from the original painting, in both detail and mood. I agree w/ Waz on the background integration, but for your very first digital painting... jeez that's beyond amazing! You have a great eye. I applaud your outstanding effort, keep it up!

Thanks a lot to everyone who's commented so far! Also, good idea waz! I made the background darker and it looks much better

This is absolutely fantastic. Please allow me to feature this on Bouguereau Remastered: http://www.bouguereau.net/
Email: romke [at] bouguereau [dot] net

Fantastic work author...Great colors,fabulous mood,and perfect execution...well done

Wonderful Reproduction.......Excellent Work!!

Fabulous!!

Amazing!!! One of the best

Wow, thanks everyone for your wonderful comments!

Congrats opponent

What a comeback! Congrats for your first place!

Congrats.

Congrats, absolutely beautiful

Congrats on the win !! well done.

Congrats!

Congrats! Very nice score!

Congrats! Very nice score!

Thank you very much!

Congrats, absolutely deserve the first place

Congratulations with the win!
Your work is now featured on Bouguereau Remastered: http://www.bouguereau.net/
Permalink: http://www.bouguereau.net/a-sombre-recreation-of-bouguereaus-innocence/

Thanks to NokieSchafe on DA for the cat reference
http://nokieschafe.deviantart.com/

really... amazing...
and congrats

Nice work I like the smooth transitions from darks to light.gives a very fresh feel to the painting.

I know everyone has seen this , but you should put the source link up.

Thank you very much to both of you, I updated the reference links

Fabulous entry! Very well blended. GL to you!

Fantastic work author...great color matching,idea and execution...best of luck

very well done ........... nice entry ......... all the best to u...........

Brilliant work!

Wow, this background is new for me. It looks nice but imo it doesnt have enough connection with the Mona Lisa self (ML has a lot of dramatic shading, background is way more lighter overall & demands too much attention right now. The original ML has a way softer bg). Is there a way to keep them more together? In case you still feel like to change something, check the other paintings by Vermeer and most of all, check the terrific use of light that he could create (very softly gradients). Good luck!

Thanks Wazo, I understand that and gave it a try, but what I can do is just making the background darker and closer to the tone of Mona Lisa, I don't have much time .

Great attention to detail and wonderfully rendered. GL

Lovely work

Congrats!

Congrats for second!

Congrats for a fantastic second place, Langstrum!

congrats !!

Nice work, good use of technique compared to the original. Maaaaaybe the bird is a bit too detailed already, but that's very nitpicking. Good luck!

Eyedrop tool is obviously your friend. The tonal matches are spot on.

nice ..... gud luck .....

amazing work, perfect execution of tones.

very nice work author....gl

Nice work and good choice......gl

Good work on this

Great job! Congrats opponent!

Congrats for a great third place, Glockman!

thanks everyone !

Congrats Glockman

I think I can congratulate you with the longest SBS ever on PXL . Good luck!

Ow, and something about the entry itself. It looks nice for sure, but maybe you can give her hands also some aging effect? Good luck!

lol

the sbs alone is worth a good score

@wazowski Thanks for the comment. Hands are now older than before.

wow author 113 steps,this is record for sure...Great work...good luck

Good idea! The effect is rather subtle, but i think that works in favour of your image. Very nice job.

Nicely done.....and allot of patience in creating your sbs and uploading all those steps

Wow, lovely, greatly done author

way to go, nice work !

Thanks!

Excellent work.

Great job!

Great work

Sorry to say this author but the goal is to find a painted portrait and replace a part of it with something else that would fit there.To my knowledge this is not a painted portrait .

ushurani, A portrait is not necessarily of one person, the description only states single examples but does not say ONLY of a single person.

i agree with ushurani about the portrait, and would also like to know how this painting was changed, for now it seems to be just a remake

The portrait part is kind of hard...though I think it works. But viewing side by side, I do see the changes, how you replaced the people etc. very subtle, and lovely rendition! I actually like, that I had to look for the changes.

Thanks annabat, sometimes it is difficult for a participant to see the rules as maybe the people who wrote them do. Everyone has their own interpretation of them.

At the risk of sounding as a 'language lawyer' I just want to let the author know that the word 'Portrait' in the English language (http://www.reference.com/browse/portrait) is very much tied to one person if not just the facial portion of the said one person. I'm not so sure what's left for interpretation here.

ushurani there are also group portraits, bands, family's, actors etc etc.a portrait can be of many things unless it is specifically stated differently.

@author

Yes, I agree. However the people in the group portraits stare at the artist who's painting them. In the modern culture the person(s) in the picture must stare at the camera if we want to call that picture a portrait (group or not doesn't matter).

Let me put it this way. What would you call a painting or a photograph which has a group of people just moving along a busy road minding their own business unaware of the painter/photographer? A portrait or just a painting? I for certain know what I *wouldn't* call it.

We'll allow this entry, a portrait can also contain multiple persons.

all the best to u author ........... its a beautiful entry .........

@moderator

A portrait may contain multiple persons, but any painting that has multiple persons is not necessarily a portrait. That's been my point all along.

Also my intention is not to get this entry removed. If it were, I would've red flagged this entry and not moan in the comments. All I am trying to understand here is why this entry is being considered a 'portrait' when that word has a very specific meaning when it comes to paintings. Can someone please enlighten me?

P.S: Please do not reply back saying that a portrait may have more than one person. I'm very much aware of that.

Ushurani, Let me put it the way I look at a portrait. Lets say you are and artist or a photographer and you go to the beach and paint a picture or take a photo of people just doing whatever, then you are correct ,that is just that a photo or a painting of people doing whatever. Now lets say you are that same photographer or artist in a studio wanting to do a photo or painting of a group for a artistic display. First you have to get all your subjects together, then you have to pose them as you want to portray them in your photo ,painting .then do the shoot or painting., much different then the casual no contact approach. This is the best I can give you to my thinking, and of course not all will agree with it ,but that is why have these disagreements. no hard feeling and glad you voiced you view. The short simple rules can sometimes become much more complicated than intended

Wonderful group portrait, best of luck to you!!

Best of luck author