Getting Eyes to Look at you

Hi there, Im not sure this is the right place to post this topic so sorry if it isnt. Anyway I'm in the middle of painting a 50s style pin up and I can;t seem to get it so the eye is actually looking at the viewer, how can I achieve that effect?? Ive repainted it about a dozen times and it always seems to be looking off into the distance, any advice is much appreciated

Yep, I know this problem and suffer from it all the time.
When thinking about the direction of gaze it's easy to get obsessed with the left/right position of the iris but the vertical position is just as important (it's also interesting to try different sizes of iris.)
In this picture there seems to be too much white showing underneath the iris. This usually only happens when the head is tilted downward and the character looks up at us from just beneath the brow. In your pic the head seems at a normal angle so the extra white space makes it look like she's looking over our heads. If you just drop the iris down so it touches (or is even slightly obscured by) the lower lid then this should fix the gaze better.
I had a quick go at cutting and pasting to show what I mean and it seems a bit better, to my view at least, but if you paint it properly that way (taking a bit more time than me) then I think it should work.

Also one thing to try is to add a layer on top and on that draw the whole eyeball, a full circle that touches the corners of the eyes and then see where the iris lies within that circle.

Great, thank you so much I really appreciate it, I'll give that a go and then post the finished face

The proportion of her facial features off. Did you work with a reference? You mentioned that you are going for a 50's pinup style? If so, then I think it's important to get the proportions look more realistic.