[Jimmie Arroyo]

Looks much better with darker tones. The eyes look different, nothing wrong with that, it works. He looks very bored in the ref pic, like you're asking him too many questions. Your drawing, especially the cropped closeup, makes him look like he's thinking or regretting something.

Would you consider yourself heavyhanded?, just a feeling I get looking at the close-ups. It also could be the jpeg compression giving it that appearance. Did you also try cleaning the ref pic first? I'm taking my pics mainly with digital, but I also scan regular 35mm photos and adjust color or contrast. The pic has a heavy yellow hue which may be restricting your view of the correct or better values. Just a thought.

Hope you don't mind, but here's a different view in just a few minutes on Photoshop. I have limited experience, but I'm sure anyone good at PS could probably make it look even better, but it's just to give you an idea.