I liked all of the intricate detail in the work and tried to focus most on shading, which I haven't really done a lot of.
As for the Benjamin essay, I thought much of his concern about the "aura" of works of art was and is unfounded. Simply because a work of art is easily reproduced once it has been made has no bearing on the fact that it was tremendously difficult to produce in the first place. The work is not being created out of thin air, it is produced by a person. Only after it has been created can it be reproduced. The aura of the work remains because of the work the original artist put into making it, and no amount of reproduction can change the fact that it is still the artist's work. It is not mechanical reproduction that is a threat to the aura of art, but rather, mechanical creation. When machines have gained the ability to not only copy the works of other but create anew in their style, it is then that art begins to lose its value. Picasso starts to lose his meaning when a computer can produce a portrait of you done in his style in half an hour. Some of the meaning may be lost, but the only ones who will notice will be the academics.
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