Self-Portrait Final Critique

I finally finished up my collage self-portrait.  Well, let me re-phrase that.  I finished it for the critique, and now after the critique, there are a few things I need to go back and tweak.  Most of my time was spent on the face.  The work was tedious, to say the least; I chose to rip up all those little pieces instead of cut them.  I have never done a self-portrait so it was definitely a learning experience.  I explored my face in the mirror and tried to feel my way over all the angles and curves.  It turns out that the self-portrait doesn't really look anything like me, but that is quite alright; I think it turned out being more about the process anyway.  I thoroughly enjoyed the process.  I was looser than I have ever been before working on a project.  I was messy and not at all precise.  I am really pleased with the way the face turned out.  I was concerned in the beginning because it wasn't shaping up like I expected it to.  That is until I started adding darker values.  Once I finally began that, the whole piece started coming together.  I had to go back and forth between the hair and the face, and then the shoulders and the hair to get a believable and nice balance of values and visual weight.  During the in-progress critique, it was suggested that I might add a really subtle gray-blue in the eyes to break up the monotony of the neutrals.  I did and completely agreed with the suggestion.  It's just blue enough to be different, but not so blue that the eyes become the focal point.  I am still unsure of the neck and shoulders.  I tried to taper the tiny strips over some thicker, darker strips to unify the face and neck.  Most of my peers like it so I may leave it.

Overall I got positive feedback:  it looks like I put a lot of time into it; the value adds dimension to the face; the scale shift in the strips on the face, hair, and neck are a nice contrast.  The suggestions:  perhaps intermingle the various strip sizes so it looks less quadrant-like; really push the hair by adding more curls; re-evaluate the eyes, situate them more so they look less stylized, and perhaps use the same tiny strips of paper from the face to shape the eyes.  I also got the comment from a peer that the portrait made her skin crawl.  I thought that was hilarious, considering that the face is made up of thin strips, resembling some sort of slinky bug.

Once I get the piece back, I will address the suggestions that I was given and see if I can finish it up once and for all.