The fact that you have done something 100 times before is no guarantee that you will get it right the next time
The more you practice something, the more confident you become. Unfortunately, the brain has an unfailing tendency to become lazy the more certain it is of its cause, and there lies the risk of unnecessary mistakes increases. This applies to everything we do and art is no exception. The top state of art mistakes is usually dominated by strangely depicted anatomy.
I myself have now been working on a large painting for several weeks, I had a photo as a starting point, but still suffered a meltdown and miscounted the number of fingers on one hand. Hands are one of the things I have drawn the most in my life and I should be immune to such a blunder, but no!
I feel that many artists like to explain away mistakes by saying that it is Art and not science - that was all intended - accept the artistic freedom! I find it hard to believe that all these artists intentionally gave the dog three legs or that the sunlight changed direction in a random spot on purpose. Sometimes such things can be put in deliberately to create an effect, but it is far from all artists who actively work with such things.
Sometimes you have to admit your mistakes and think about how you want to move forward. Sometimes the mistake can be an improvement, it wasn't what you had in mind but the subject became much better because of it and you have to change your own mindset about it. Sometimes, on the other hand, it's just a matter of picking up the tools and tidying up what went crazy. I could have fought for my own prestige and the nine-fingered woman, but no, that would have been a not very well-hidden after-construction. Instead, I dipped the brushes in paint and gave her another thumb and now she finally looks the way that I thought I painted her the first time.
There is a rule of thumb that is mostly used for text but works just as well for art and that is that the bigger something is, the harder it is to review. Misspellings in facade signs, for example, are often only discovered by outsiders after they have been installed. This is despite the fact that it was reviewed by several people from the staff during production.
For the next large canvas, I intend to keep a closer eye on the body parts. At least until I get used to it and my brain starts to get lazy again.
