If At First You Don't Succeed

... then fail, fail, fail again.

I have been working on this monkey for a few months now. I am so worried about messing up as I really want to get this right. I think I would be less concerned if I were painting this for myself or as a commission. As it is, this is a thank you to a friend that has taken me way too long to get nowhere.

Here is the initial attempt. I was not happy with it. It looked more dirty to my naked eye than it shows in this picture and I wanted some more variation along with better blending.

So I reworked it using the exact same colours. No, I am not getting the order of the pictures wrong.

I'm sharing these partially because the blog needs some content, and partially to show that sometimes first, second, and even subsequent goes at something do not always work. It is discouraging, but if we let this stop us then nothing would ever move forward. Right now I am hesitant to work on it for fear of mucking it up further. This is a feeling I have with every project unless I happen to be able to bull rush my way through it in a single paint session. I don't know how yet, but I will fix this. When whatever I am working on turns this far South I like to take a break from it to refresh my head, but it is important to return to these things eventually. I am always glad when I do not fully abandon these failures when I look back at them later.