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I really like the angle and the lighting in your portrait. Having the eyes turned toward the viewer doesn't really bother me.
What does seem very much out of place to me is the made-up background. It takes away from what would be a terrific strong painting, otherwise. I would have just put a plain "studio" background behind this very powerful head and shoulders portrait.
As to your question of getting good reference photos, I take a hundred or more shots of the subject in photo session and I'm bound to get a few that are exactly what I want to paint.
It took me a while to learn how get the photos I wanted, though. My first photo sessions produced a hundred or more BAD shots!
There is some great info in other sections of this Forum on how to shoot good reference photos, and some suggestions of books with simple tips that can make all the difference.
Hope that helps!
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