Thanks to Cathy and Vikki who critiqued the first version.

1. I have ordered a Spyder2 - calibration issues will continue a while.

2. I reverted to the original and started with a lighter and less contrasty version.

3. I recolored the mahogany table using green tint on the dark sections and red on the light (I seem to recall that is the coloration of that quite red version of mahogany finish. Looks better. Strove to bring out more texture in it.

4. Gave up on extracting any real floor textrure and tried to just drive it into something subliminal.

5. Color choices. I changed the stripes to a complimentary pink & green and made the backdrop a deeper shade of the same pinkish color. I softened the color of the drapes to be more neutral and less metalic and used a lighter version on the bit of wall -paper color that peaks through under the bench.

6. Completely redid the colorization of her skin trying to make it lighter, more subtle, and less sallow. Removed some unintentional yellow from the eyes and teeth. Let some blue show through in the hair which should be fairly dark and eliminated the confusing yellow highlights.

I think it is better. I am not yet happy with the skin texture and coloring on the legs. A couple minor glitches sneaked in that I am only seeing now (socks turned green and gradient shading of the back bench legs ended to abruptly.) I think that darking the room did help and that getting my monitor calibrated may be an equally big improvement.

What do you think?

The posted version looks bluer than my PS display.??????

Bluedog, you may want to do a little more tweaking with your image levels, contrast etc...it was a bit flat. I converted the image to cmyk (my preference), desaturated it, adjusted levels, added a sepia photo filter layer and did some simple colourizing using curves adjustment layers (used 'colour' blending mode for some) some of the colours I used here (notably wall and drapes) I am still not keen on and it probably wouldn't hurt to bump up the saturation a tad also. Did you change colour profiles when you saved for web? That can cause colour shifts. It looks to me like more repair/touchup work needs doing especially around the hair and the wall -apologies for stating the obvious if this is still work in progress.

Understand you have colour issues, but I think the little girl's dress is far too similar to the curtains and on my screen she looks a very unhealthy dusky pink, face is not too bad though, but a little bit of grey showing through

Yes, I tend to agree with you both. I have honestly been focusing on the "skin" aspect, which is proving more difficult than anything I have studied so far. Its funny that you should mention Saturation levels. I let the completed photo sit for twenty four hours and then decided that the colors where too phoney and that her skin was more delicate. SO, before I posted I decrease saturation across all the skin.

I feel like my direction is swaying back and forth across the real-objective. I am feeling uncertain about contrast and saturation and color choices.

I think that I need to get a few more of these under my belt.

Thanks for the critique and the examples. I will study them more.

If I were you, I'd hold off working on anything until my monitor was calibrated.
Aside from the color issues, the image as a whole seems dusty (that's the only word I could think of to describe what I'm seeing). Perhaps it is the method you are using to apply the color.
I've done a partial coloring of your image to illustrate what I mean.

Hi Bluedog

How did you do the eyes? While I don't think that they were probably what you were going for (she looks like something out of The Exorcist). I like how they turned out, very creepy. Also it would be nice to post the original so we can compare it to what you've colorized.

Wow Viki that looks amazing very impressive!

I'm not sure what exactly your going for, but the edges (especially the hair, curtains etc.) look really sharp and almost cutout to me, perhaps some fading instead of such a sharp line?