Burning butterflies by imclod

As you've said you didn't work from the ref a lot. That means most comes down towards what you think is real, based on your remembered knowledge on how things look for real, hence the intellectual realism. The proportions are believable, but you miss a part of subtlety. For one you've contrasted the freckles quite a bit and very distinct. Remind that freckles are in the skin, not on top. It involves some subtle shadings around it; dissolve shading, match it with the surrounding shade taint. It is apparent that you use almost one tone for almost the entire face. There are more definitions and dare to exaggerate and buffer it at the same time. You also drew a hard texture that is flowed one direction too much (due southwest is predominant). It makes the womans skin texture rough. Chaos it out more. Just like the freckles are in reallife differ in size and shape. Here they are just dots with some a comma to the southwest. Dim them down and chaos it out by creating more play. You can loose a bit porosity-detail and make your portrait less "black-head pimple".

In summation a very good drawing and a good radiance of life and that remains the most important!