Calling this one done

I have always loved relief sculpture, and have tried my hand at them a couple of times. The ones that I have created previously were very deep reliefs. I wanted to try my hand at creating a shallow relief. After looking at numerous images on the Internet I decided to give it a try. I found a small wooden oval to work on and these are my progress pictures.

So on the first picture a just drew a profile in the clay with a long wooden tooth pick. After many tries, I cheated and found a small profile picture, cut out the image and then drew around it with the tooth pick. This helped me get the proper proportions.

I should have taken a picture one shot earlier, but this is the basic filling in of anatomy.

More detailing of her face and hair. Also beginning to get her wings and dress. 

Here is the finished shot, I gave her dress some pattern by just gently pressing a decal into it. Added more to her wings and added flowers to her headband. This is the point in my process where I usually sit and mess with it so much that I will eventually ruin it. So I am stopping here and calling her done.

Here is a close up of her face. She reminds me a bit of my niece Jennifer. 

I was talking with the gentlemen I am dating and shared with him the picture of my relief sculpture. He asked my if I was happy with her. I said I am good with calling her done. He has never dated someone artistic and he commented that I seem to have trouble knowing when to stop. His comment got me thinking.

I think it is because to call it done means that this is as good as I can make it, and with that comes the fears of "Is it good enough?" To be done means that this is how it will be when I send it out into the world. It starts the crazy comparison crap that we do to ourselves. For me it can almost be debiltating. But I tell myself that this is where I am now, but I can and will be even better in the future. I tell myself that I do this because it feels so good to me to create, and not to worry about all the other stuff. 

So I will mold her and cast her, I will be happy with the process of creating and continue to do it. I think I will give the cast to my mom for Christmas.

A shot to show her size.