Color Project Critique

My Paula Deen lookalike photo comes off as a really weak photo.  It is the second image in my conceptual series where I use color to make my sister resemble tv show characters.  First off, Paula Deen isn't really a tv show character, but thats beside the point.  In the project, each photo I took resembles a picture of the character that I found online.  In the Paula Deen photo, the color scheme I used does not match the picture im copying.  The worst part of the photo isn't the lack of matching color however, it is the lighting.  In the picture online, everything is blurred in the background, focused on P.D.  In my photo, everything behind my sister is completely visible.  When looking at the two pictures side by side, they barely resemble each other.  To fix this issue, first im going to ditch P.D. and use a more interesting character.  In my new photo, im going to focus on the lighting and color to make sure the two pictures resemble each other.