I'm having an art show!

I don't know if I mentioned that besides being a designer I am also an artist. I draw paint etc. Anyway, I'm finally having an art show! woo hoo!!! I've talked about doing this for years now but never went through with it. So now I have my venue booked and am working on planning and getting my artwork together. It will be a joint show with my sister who is majoring in fashion design at the Art Institute of Chicago. Here is a piece that I just finished. A friend of mine is a photographer and has taken a couple of trips to Africa with a church group as their personal photographer. He allowed me to use one of his photos as subject matter. You can see more of his work at www.dcvizion.com He is a great photographer :)

My personal critique: I chose to use pastels as my medium because I couldn't ignore using color for this piece. I also love doing very detailed drawings and pastel really allows for that. I used pastel pencils for the detailed areas which really helped with the face and shirt.
My version also has simplistic elements with the background and the pants. One of my favorite artists is Jacob Lawrence and I think the simplicity is somewhat reminiscent of his style. The background in particular gives me the feeling that was achieved in this particular Lawrence painting on the left, "They were very poor." The solid color. I think it just works for what was being portrayed.