Portrait of Beverley

Are you using oil or acrylic?  Or did you mean the photograph?

I wouldn’t even think of adding eyeliner at this stage, if ever!, what you are doing is trying to copy the photo as it is, which is flat and lacks any decent tonal values to speak of (which is typical of most photos). Use it as a guide and start adding some colour, including complimentary colours, this all looks a bit orangey! Go online and see what palette professional artists use for portraits, and use that as your guide. I can tell you what colours to consider if you need more advice.

Look up the Zorn palette, great for portraits. Lost and found areas are also important to consider, especially where the hair meets the face.

Oh yes indeed, good old Anders Zorn... Four colours so it doesn’t get any more simple than that! But it’s NOT so simple, as many of us will know who use it. Great for honing up those colour mixing skills.

I have painted very few portraits - one I did paint was basically from a photograph, or several photographs, after an initial sitting, and I had much the same trouble as you're having.  The eyes - and it really didn't help that the lady I was painting was already in the habit of painting herself, with large quantities of eyeliner and mascara, not to mention numerous creams and powders - stood out far too strongly because of the lack of differentiation in skin tones - the photographs were too flat, the layers of make-up had flattened out the face anyway.  So the eyes jumped out of context, as (to a lesser extent, I have to admit) the eyes in your portrait do.  You've got the features about right (which is no small achievement) but you've run into problems with the modelling of the face: the eyes look painted-on - which is the very thing you'll have tried to avoid. I would post my own portrait to show you the similar problems I had, but frankly I'm too embarrassed!  It was never finished, because the lady suddenly died while it was being adjusted, re-painted, sworn over, and very nearly kicked off the easel: this was some 23 years ago, but the memory lingers....... I can offer a few suggestions, realizing how difficult it will be to accomplish them, though.  The eyes are too sharply defined, and perhaps a little too long; the left eye (ie her left eye, to our right) doesn't quite follow the contours of the head: it's a very common mistake to make both the eyes the same length in this sort of pose, but perspective applies to faces as well as to everything else; the whites of the eyes are too white: take a look at your own - I hope they aren't as yellow and marked by age and decline as mine are, but the whites will be much less pronounced, and less obvious, than these: eyes may or may not be the windows of the soul, but they're not as prominent in size in relation to the other features as we so often paint them, and the whites tend towards a blue-ish or ochreous tint for most of us, depending on reflected colour.    The outer corners of both of the eyes here are too sharp, giving a faint Fu Manchu touch. But I wouldn't encourage you to rush back and have another go at them just yet - first, get your model to pose for you, with some decent light, and improve the modelling of the skin tones: build shapes with darks, lights, and intermediate tones; glazing or scumbling, or both, can often achieve the softening you're after, or you can do it more directly - the time has perhaps come for your sable or softer brushes, but lay the rigger to one side for a while while you work on the plastic qualities of the flesh.   I do want to add, though, a) portraiture is THE most difficult subject, and working from photographs makes it many times more so, and b) you HAVE got a likeness - and this is a very difficult thing to do in itself.  If we can safely mention Rolf Harris again, think of the problem he had with painting HM the Queen: Harris is a good painter, but had a lot of trouble with the Queen's mouth (partly because he tried to paint a more cheerful Elizabeth II R than E2R seemed to have been feeling at the time; nonetheless, more 'distinguished' portraitists than Harris have made a hash of portraying HM successfully, despite having had more time with their subject.   You expect to have to struggle with a portrait, and most do - which is why I've avoided them (plus, no one has asked me to paint them in the last 20 years) - so you're in populous and good company.  Finally - if you can, get yourself a copy of Virgil Elliott's Traditional Oil Painting, the new edition published by Echo Point Books.  It's the best all-round guide to successful oil painting that I've ever read (and I've read a lot).  

I would concur with most if not all that Robert has said here.  Figure drawing and portraiture are without doubt the two most difficult challenges in painting, irrespective of medium - although oils are the most widely used medium by professional artists in these disciplines. That is why students at art college, spend a great deal of each day in the life class studio (at least they did when I was at college some decades ago). And, it takes a great deal of practice to become anywhere near proficient, there is no fast track route. Good accurate drawing skills are required before even venturing into paint. ‘The Artist‘ magazine often features excellent stage demos on the subject, I believe last months had such an article. A beginner needs  to start off on the right footing, otherwise progress will be slow and painful!

Once you have painted in her dark top and her hair, the line around the eyes may not seem so dark.  Also when there are more shadows on the face then the eyes will not stick our so much.  There are lots of demonstrations of portrait painting on U-Tube - they usually all start with the modelling of the form of the face, before adding the details of the eyes - after all the eyes fit within the eye sockets (part of the structure of the face).  The darkness of the "eyeliner" is not the thing that sticks out to me, but there are two things that do stick out. Regarding the eye on the left (her right), the angle of the outer corner is too sharp and consequently the eye does not fit in the socket.  Secondly the furloughs on her forehead and between the eyebrows are too dark compared to the other shadows on the face.  This is very ageing (as is side lighting).  You have a choice of either lightening them or darkening the other shadows on the face.   As a general point, there is not a line around the eyes of equal thickness.  You can try a lost and found approach.  There is a shadow cast by the upper lid and so this line is normally more pronounced.  There are more eyelashes on the upper lid than the lower lid. The lower lid with it's pale surface (inside the eyelashes) against the not so white eyeball has less definition. Robert and Alan have given some good advice above particularly get your model to pose under kinder light. Hope this helps.

Just to add - models in life classes don’t wear makeup, eyeliner included! There’s a good reason for that which should be obvious... 

Joan, you must be reeling with all this advice 😊 As Linda says, you tube has some excellent demos re portraiture, just don't watch for too long or you won't get down to painting! We all approach portraiture differently and the outcomes are different, too. Identify what attracts you and find someone on you tube who will help you here. Try and start with a " live " sitter, take some photos and refer to them from time to time. If you can only work from a photo, try and add some oomph, a mood, something which sings out about the person. Sometimes, I feel, the artist looks only for the exact replication, this is not what attracts me. There are many examples on the gallery of this, you recognise the subject but it's " flat". It's hard but look for that "extra" which really says something about the person. And here endeth the lesson😉

Are you reeling?  (Tee hee.......)  Oh, you mustn't reel - just take what looks useful and leave anything you're not quite getting yet to another day. If I were to boil it all down, I'd say fit the eyes to the face, not the face to the eyes - which either makes sense or it doesn't!  And if it doesn't, disregard it.