Yes, the marble-like skin was the idea. Regarding the exposure, oh boy, this was taken over a decade ago! I probably took an incident meter reading with the meter set at EI 50. There wasn't an additional filter factor applied. (The rating at 50 took care of the filter.) Thanks for your comment and question!
On another photo site the screener, the person who decides whether a picture gets put on the site, criticized it for "too much digital processing" because of the glow and grain. Of course, the grain and glow are from Kodak High Speed Infrared film!
Beautiful image Peter. I haven't shot HIE in about 15 years now but I still love the look, and what it can do with skin tones can be really nice. I like the simplicity you have here. As to the other photo site, well that is just plain sad.