did you color over graphite pencil? i know when i use colored pencil over graphite it smudges and looks muddy

12

Study where the highlights and shadows should be on the face. If you know anything about makeup, that's what personally helps me figure out the placement

9

Use blue, red, orange, yellow, white, peach, purple, and brown (carefully)…depending on undertones you can make it less muddy and more realistic

7

Get better pencils

6

Your blending looks really nice! It looks like you used grey in your shading or base tho, and I would swap that for a more saturated color so it looks more alive

6

Map out the shadows, work your way from lightest colors/areas to darker areas. Try to only use darker colors on more shadowed areas. Also try not to use colored pencil over graphite

3

Looks fine to me.

-2