avictoriangirl wrote in icon_tutorial 😛determined

Help!

Hi everyone! I'm new here and am in desperate need of some help! I have an icon that is very dark that I have been trying to fix. 
Here is the original:  & what I have come up with:
I'm somewhat happy with the coloring, but it has put dark spots on his beard on the right and she looks a bit funny around the eye and nose. I have played around with curves, color balance, channel mixer and hue/saturation. Any suggestions, or is it entirely hopeless?! I use PS7 on windows. Thank you!