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Hi, Janet! The first thing I noticed about your painting is how nicely you've done the hair - few sharp edges, lots of subtle transitions, nicely done, especially on the lit side.
My chief advice to you is to not work with any reference photo that is not perfect. Perfect. Realism painting is hard enough without having to make things up. Try to get this boy in an outdoor lighting situation where his eyes aren't squinting from the sun; if you look at the Forum section on outdoor photography you'll see lots of tips. Personally I favor filtering bright sun with a sheer curtain to reduce the lit/non-lit ratio. Bright sun will wash out all the delicate flesh tones.
Your eye reference photo just is not lit well enough to help you with your painting. You need to try to light the eye to make it sparkle. An eye is moist, especially in children, and you need to set up the lighting to capture the moistness (think: peeled grape). You also have the whites of the eyes far too bright in your painting, they are usually just a cooler version of flesh tone. What colors are on your palette, by the way?
I hope I haven't upset you with all this. I'm a bad Critique Moderator because I usually just tell people to take another photo, or go and work from life for a while. I think you are a fresh, loose painter and would be perfectly suited for painting children outdoors.
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