Hi,I like your picture.It has a nice feel.Its funny how when your painting you dont notice something like the branch...until you have another eye!

I used to paint horses and the eyes ,ears and noses are sometimes very difficult to paint.deer have very wide eye(ie the deer in the headlights look lol) sometimes you have to watch where you put the highlight dot so it doesnt look like looking in different directions.i think maybe if you just softened the nose alittle and added alittle mid tones around it so its not just black.Ill have to take a closer look at my deer that visit in the backyard!!the snow is pretty deep so I havent seen them much lately.

I had a very good pice of advice given to me years ago by a prominent gallery owner of equine art.she told me to study and draw the skeleton of the horse in a museum also study the anatomy of the muscle and bone structure.and of course the real thing!i used to sit with a sketch pad in the paddock with my horses...but its hard to get them to sit still!I have a great book on the anatomy of the horse....maybe they have books like that for deer too!lynne