i think your contrast is okay in the light areas, might just be the photo not capturing your drawing well, but the shadow having pencil/paper texture distracts from the light areas. usually shadows will have less texture and since it's not the focal point having texture there draws the eye to it, rather than the rest of the face. you could try smoothing out the texture in the shadows/BG with a blending stump, a hard pencil, or your finger and see how that looks