Edit: Thought I'd post a little bit of progress, it's crazy how much a few lines around the mouth can fix it up. At first I was like 'man that is not my mouth at all' but I shifted the shadows around a bit and VOILA! Now he could be my distant cousin, har har. I think the dark background is helping. I'm trying to be really bold with that exciting orange flesh colour, it's a colour I'd normally stay away from because it's very bold.

Trying to get that blue/orange relationship going here, too. Colour relationship are very mysterious to me. Anything colour related that is working in this painting I feel I owe to three of many amazing OCAD instructors: Gillian Isles, Harvey Chan and Robert Berger, all three fantastic artists and teachers.