Chose between finishing a piece or starting fresh halfway through

I spent like 12 hours on a landscape illustration last week and just hit a wall around 2am. I had to pick between pushing through the messy middle or scrapping it and starting over with a new composition. I went with scrapping it and honestly the second try came together in just 4 hours. Has anyone else had a project that flowed way better after a fresh start?

3 comments

3 Comments

graydavis21d ago

Fresh starts just hit different sometimes.

scott.drew20d ago

The "messy middle" is where I always overthink things too. I bet your brain just needed a reset to get unstuck, and @graydavis is right that fresh starts can unlock something different. Sometimes pushing through just makes you dig deeper into the wrong hole, so cutting bait early saves time in the long run.

the_stella20d ago

@scott.drew nailed it - messy middles are like traffic jams, sometimes you just gotta reroute.