Urgenttly need to learn how to paint!?

Okay so the thing is in my program at school, for your last year you have to do a personal project, which is extremely big and goes on over the length of a year, you start planing it the year before and all. And so it's really this big thing. We are now in the summer before my last year and it would be really important that I finish the whole creation part as soon as possible, if I can this summer.
But...I decided to make three paintings, one involving eyes, the other ears, the other mouths.
I have to say, I'm extremely good in drawing. I could do all those things naturally with a pencil, no issue.
And I've already painted a couple things, but never people, or such. And I'm just now realizing that my painting is terrible! I just tried painting an eye and it still doesn't look anything like he picture!
Whereas my drawings look exactly like what I base myself on, eyes being my specialty, the paintings are horrible.
I can't manage to get the right colors, the blending is wrong, the strokes are awkward, it's imprecise... I don't know what to do!
I'd love to practice my skills, because I know it takes a lot of time to master an art, it did for drawing, but I just don't have the time!
And I really want it to look phenomenal, I don't want to be asked by everyone to see my project and be ashamed of it, because I pretty much will have to show it to everyone.
This really is a big thing and I don't know what to do...
Can I somehow switch and draw on canvases??

I figured out how to do it from Lightroom's end (edit>Catalog Settings>Metadata>Automatically write changes into XMP)

But how do I do it from Bridge/ACR's end, so any changes I make there will automatically be seen when I go into Lightroom instead of me having to manually choose to update the changes from an outside program?

FX Photo Studio will allow you to paint in effects, so you can highlight only a certain area that way.

Snapseed by Nik Software gives you targeted adjustments, but it's just a circle area, so you can't be too specific. However, it does figure out what you're trying to highlight, and attempts not to affect anything else. (This is only a phone app, however)

There is also, of course, GIMP, a free version of Photoshop, or just get Photoshop Elements

Do you have pencils with different softness levels? HB is the standard, but it's a bit too hard to do subtle shading. See if a store near you has pencils in B, 2B, 3B and 6B. They aren't expensive. Once you get used to how they feel, you'll be able to get some beautiful shading in your pictures.

If you can find them, get water colour pencil crayons. They are coloured pencils that let you use a paintbrush with a bit of water to give the picture a watercolour look. They can be a bit pricey, but you might save and get them. Don't lug them to school, leave them home, you don't want them lost.

These links are to a store I go to, I'm only including it so you can see what I mean. Look for one in your area.
Here's watercolour pencils https://www.abovegroundartsupplies.com/s... Easy to master and a lot of fun to use.

And here's pencils. I prefer these graphite pencils https://www.abovegroundartsupplies.com/s... and https://www.abovegroundartsupplies.com/s...
The ones I'd recommend are a B, 2B and a 3B to start. If you can afford it get a 6B. They are a softer material so you don't need to press hard to get rich dark shading.

Get a good metal pencil sharpener - they cost about a dollar.