Avoiding the trap

I was feeling pretty good about my speckled horse when I went to bed last night. Then I woke up this morning, logged onto Facebook and saw Melanie Miller's glorious fleabitten Upton resin...

and Mindy Berg's amazing Eberl Arabian.

I looked at those pictures and looked at my horse, and suddenly she didn't look as good as I'd remembered.

This is the point when I usually give up.

But... comparing your work to that of the hobby's most accomplished painters is a trap. Nothing good can come of it, and it's not what NaMoPaiMo is about. So instead of quitting, I gave myself a pep talk, picked up a paint brush and soldiered on.

Here is Maeve after several hours of concentrated work. 

She doesn't look like she was painted by Mel or Mindy, but that's okay. She's a Buxton, and that's good enough.