it is quite an ugly sight to see some of my paintings in the start-up phase. Here is a particularly ugly one.
In the beginning, I go between thinking, "this is so ugly there is no idea to continue" and "I cannot give up on my vision. In a couple of layers this WILL turn out ok". I like to call it the ugly duckling dilemma. You hate how it looks at first, but it might turn into a swan. The question is if you are willing to trade your time and energy to see if you can make it look beautiful or not.
I thought I would share this in order to show you that if you are new at painting, you have to have p a t i e n c e. If it turns out bad, swipe it away or let it dry and add another layer. Don't give up because it looks bad at first.
Then there is another dilemma about painting and realism; you can go on and on and on and on.....forever. There are always areas and details you can change and shadows to add. In this case, the last image is where I decided to stop.