I've gone thru the "concensis" thing on my project's too. It can be good and bad. The good is that if you can get too caught up in the piece and a fresh set of eyes can be helpful. Also leaving it alone even for a few days and coming back to it can give you a new insight as well. You seem to have plenty of suggestions to consider so I'll just comment on the one thing that jumped out at me. I would like to see the eyes pointing at the viewer. It's the first thing I thought of. Or maybe slightly off to the side instead of dead on. My biggest concern in my pieces especially in the newer one's I am working on is where are the eye's pointing. I think it's the most important thing, at least to me.