"Moonlight" Failed WIP

Hello lovely people, 

How are you all on this new Monday?

On my side of things, everything is pretty good, although I am very exhausted indeed.
You may have seen on my Instagram that we have been having problems with our neighbours being very noisy and ignoring our (polite) requests for them to be quieter, which resulted in us having to sleep on our sofa for a couple nights in a row.
They eventually calmed down, and the past couple nights were quieter, but the worst part of it all is that now we are somewhat paranoid every time we hear anything.
As a result, I am absolutely exhausted, and have had trouble catching up on sleep.
Noise also contributes quite significantly to my anxiety, and I've already had some trouble dealing with the noisy road next to our flat, so add that on top and I was a bit of a wreck the past few days.
(We will be contacting our landlady if the noise continues, but hopefully it won't come to that.)

Add to that that I was hoping to be done with the film poster commission last week but that my client is quiet difficult to communicate with, and you've got a recipe for a tiring week.  

I think all these factors contributed to me not being very happy with the above painting. 

You may recognise the concept as being from a sketch I did a couple of weeks ago. I really like the idea, but didn't quite execute it in a way that satisfies me. 

Now, worry not, I am not disappointed or angry or even sad about this. Frustrated, sure, especially since I was hoping to get this done for the second week of Month of Love, for which the theme was "Beauty", but overall, I am not unhappy to be dissatisfied with this piece. 

In fact, painting it was very enjoyable, even though I did want to cry half way though, half from exhaustion and half from not knowing where I was going with it. But ultimately, I managed to reach a state of mind while working on it where, instead of feeling like I needed to finish it as quickly as possible, of feeling like I didn't have enough time and stressing out about my process, I actually felt at peace with however long this exploration would take me. Which resulted in me really enjoying the process, as well as feeling proud for reaching a state of acceptance of myself, my way of working, and my failings. 

What do I not like about this piece?
Well, the colours don't work for me, I don't like how they all became variations of a muted brown, and the values are not what I'd like them to be. Her face doesn't please me either, I find her characterless and bland.
I would also like more depth to the background.

I now feel energised to keep working on this concept and find a direction I like more, while integrating the elements I liked most about this attempt.
I am finding more and more that I really enjoy working with layers of watercolour and watercolour pencils, and adding gouache accents for depth and contrast. And I definitely want to explore than further, and I am fully ready, and almost excited, to fail along the way. Because failing seems to help me accept the process, and become more at peace with myself, and I really need that. 

So here's to my next attempt, and perhaps even the next, and the next, and the next. :)

I hope you are all well,
Love, M