This past week has been a bit rough for me. I spent the weekend sick out of my mind and it carried into the earlier part of the week. It was like a fever without the heat. I was left lightheaded, nauseous and overwhelmingly tired, but thankfully, not drowning in sweat.

However, while my body was little use, for the most part, I did a lot of drawing to pass the time spent in bed when I wasn't sleeping. Pages upon pages are now full of fungi, flowers and doodles of friends. Once I was actually able to sort of function, I started flipping through my old sketchbook and I saw an old self-portrait left undone. I took it upon myself to finally finish it after what had probably been months of collecting dust. I wish I had taken a picture of the line art, but it didn't come across my mind at the time.

Honestly, this painting came out totally different than what I pictured in my head, but to be fair I didn't really have a plan in mind. I kind of just sat down with the sketchbook in front of me and went at it for an hour with some acrylic paint. The colors are a bit all over the place and I would've preferred a color scheme, but for a quick painting, it came out better than expected.

I would definitely change the background and hair color. I think that the muddy green color had good intentions, but boy did it fail. Maybe I was thinking it'd give it an earthy vibe, but it's pretty off-putting for the painting. As for the hair color, it would've been nice to just keep it a light color or even no color at all.

I love the camellias in the flower crown and the mushrooms on the bottom. The red camellias are absolutely adorable and they're probably one of my favorite flowers right now. I love these mushrooms and how they still vibe with the rest of the colors in the painting. They were fairly last minute, hence the sloppiness and smeared paint. Though, I really do like the out-of-the-lines look.

I ended up literally covering up my mistakes with a shoddy card stock mosaic. I somehow came to the conclusion that a bunch of cut up pieces of paper would look better than a muddy wash of color. And, I think I might've been right. After another hour bent over my sketchbook, fingers covered in glue, and scraps covering my desk and floor, the mosaic was finished. In real life, the lighter yellow pieces in the mosaic shimmer a bit which adds for a cool effect. I could've gone with smaller pieces, but overall, I think the mosaic looks cool. The mosaic does seem to take away from the fungi chilling in the foreground. I could balance it out by adding some more mushrooms or plants or maybe some moss, but right now I think it looks fine as is.

I'm definitely happier with the piece now than I was before, but it's not one of my favorite things I've created. Well, you win some and you lose some, right?