alice

I feel this piece has potential to stand out with a little bit of tweaking. I like the limited color pallete and I love the texture in the design and background. However, the overall image is too dark and most of that beautiful detail and texture is lost. I'm viewing this image on an LCD monitor (which are known for making images brighter than they actually are) and I can barely see what's happening on the left side of the image and most of the background. If I were viewing this on my CRT monitor, I'd be seeing nothing but black in those areas. Even on your "details" page, I have trouble seeing the detail in this image. This leaves me straining and begging to see more detail, but leaving my eyes tired and disappointed.
The contrast on the face has been handled well, but the outer edge of the design and most of the background is lost. There's just a hint that something is happening in that space. If you were to up the brightness and contrast in those areas, you would bring out and emphasize that texture. You may not have to adjust the levels in the design at all if you bring out the background a bit more. If that grey/black area was a bit lighter, the design and text might just pop a little more, and the entire composition would be more readable with relatively little work.