Wailing mother

This is a very powerful piece and I think it's mostly because of the amazing use of colors and light. I loved the little details of the face and how the light shines through the veil and catches on the tears.
There are just two issues that detract from full 5 stars. One is that she seems a bit too masculine to be the archetypal mother figure and it makes me wonder if it was an accident or you really wanted to say grief is beyond gender? If it's the latter then maybe a different approach would have been better (like a couple where you can't tell apart the mother from the father, perhaps). My first guess was that you wanted to portray an older and very thin looking lady and she just turned up looking a touch too male... I can see that easily happen, because the gender of people that are very old, very thin or very fat tends to be a bit harder to tell. At least that's what I've noticed.
The second issue is that the arm seems just a little off. I'm not sure why - maybe the shoulder is too low? I'm not particularly good at anatomy...
Anyway, great job! I really wish I could draw something this awesome.