creating a portrait in oils

Ok,

So I drew a large pencil sketch of my 1 1/2 yr old son, portrait style. The pencil sketch actually turned out really well. But, I started to paint over it and now I'm frustrated. The hardest part about painting is covering something up that looks good already. I should have kept it as a pencil skethch and continued in that direction. Well, since the damage is done I'll keep going and see if I can salvage what I've done. Too, many colors for what the picture needs. The other problems is I haven't located all the shadows properly at the correc darkness which is I guess a good problem because this could make a huge difference in why I don't like the painting. I've lost Sebastians likeness, so I might be able to get it back with some more work. Well, it's my first painting in years so I need to work on some technique. I guess I shouldn't have had such great expectations. I had it in my mind that I'd make this beautiful pencil sketch an even more beautiful painting, but instead went the other way and made it worse. I knew and feared in the back of my mind that this would happen. I need to stop this thread.
ap