Autumn Impression #2

Or...Listen to the voice in your head...

The below is a work in progress (?), and has become problematic in a number of ways. I wish I had a picture of what this looked like 30 minutes ago, because honestly, it looked much better back then.

30 minutes ago it was a simple straight-forward autumn sketch of a stream with a tree line in the background and a single focus tree in the left foreground.

Autumn Impression #2 (oils on canvas panel, 12 by 16)

I liked a lot of it for the most part. But maybe not the foreground tree. So a few more brushstrokes. Not helping. Stop. But I can probably fix this with a few more brush strokes. Or not. So maybe a few more. Or touch up the water. Or add more highlights to the distant tree line. And so on. And on. And on.

The funny thing is, with each step along the way, I knew that I should just stop, and that every time I added something I was going to get further away from where I wanted to be. But the urge to fix is hard to set aside.

So onward I went, and this sloppy mess is the result. Once you feel yourself sliding down that slippery slope, one part of you says stop, and one part of you says "but I know I can fix this."

Perhaps not.

After a downward spiral of good intentions, I ruined the foreground tree, then overworked the stream, and then ruined the distant tree line.

I do wish I had a picture of what this looked like a while ago, because it was actually pretty nice back then.

Now...I don't ever see myself going back to this after it dries. This is most likely destined for the trash, and deservedly so.

Live and learn. Maybe. Or maybe not...