Myrtle,
It sure isn't easy when you don't have a willing subject to practice with. His body language and expression show his unhappyness.
Some thoughts:
The color picture looks a bit cool. You may want to adjust your WB. Some areas of his skin have a grey/blue color. The background also looks a bit off in color. I'm seeing what looks like banding on the left side of the frame.
White is a good background, provided it is well lit. You need more light on your background, and remove the wrinkles. Also, it looks a bit odd to have the dark area on the left side of the frame. It isn't really a vignette, but looks more like it wasn't lit completely.
Guys do NOT look good with their head tilted toward a high shoulder. Also, in this case due to the pose/crop it give him a hunchback appearance.
His nose has a very pronounced shape. You may want to find a pose or lighting angle that doesn't draw attention to the nose by highlighting it. I think you might try a nice profile in B&W with him.
Now, some things you have done well:
You have done a good job keeping the reflections off the glasses. The lighting ratio is also very well done. The B&W conversion looks well done. That is a very subjective thing. You just need to play with your color balance and contrast until you are happy.
