Project 2 Progress

I started with this portrait but over the weekend I got a family member to help take a photo, so now I'm doing a self-portrait instead. I like the progress I had already made on the initial portrait though, so I will post it here as well.

 

I would prefer not to post my original photo online for personal reasons. This is what I have of the vector so far, though. The green blob in my (currently missing) hand is my pet parrot. Illustrator is a very foreign and confusing program to me. My brush tool is not working (I'm sure there is some reason why) so I am only able to create shapes with the pen and pencil tools.