A couple months ago I bought 3 canvases from Dick Blick - too good of a deal to pass up (great price + free shipping), and they let me use my PayPal. I had intended to "try to replicate" three digital prints that I had made. After the first day, working on the first canvas, I felt so depressed - I don't know why I ever thought I could do this. It only took me over 40 odd years to figure out that I don't have a clue about what I am doing... But the next day, I got up and worked again, and it was wonderful.
Along the way I had decided that it wasn't going to be three separate paintings, but a triptych. I also had combined the three images on the computer and came up with a nice composition, so this was the new idea.
Somewhere along the journey, I decided "screw all that, this is looking too interesting".
Today, I mixed them up, turned one upside down and am on my way to "the greatest painting that's ever been painted". I love it when the artwork takes over and shows me new things that I had never even imagined. I could have maybe achieved what I set out to do, and it would have been nice, but now I have something happening that is so much more exciting. It's the difference between producing something and actually letting the creative process take over. You have to accept the small failures along the way, and then you work to turn it all into something so much better.