One of the first things to learn, after thinning your paints a bit, is to highlight and shade. Mix white or another lighter color with the base color and then put that on the raised areas and the ones facing the sky (Where the lights coming from) and then do the same with dark mixed in but in the recesses and opposite of where the lights coming from.
Not bad for a first attempt. A couple of things that I think will help a LOT. First of all it looks liek you have way too much paint on your brush, thats why the red is so gloppy. Use less paint and do a few coats if you have to. Also, use flesh colors on the face, not gold...