I have come to the conclusion that if I am painting and not happy with the way something is going that I need to change it, even if it is a drastic change. Fear sometimes stops me or at least makes me hem and haw for way longer than I should. I am currently working on a painting and the space in it has been bothering me. So after looking at it for 4-5 days, I bit the bullet and painted out the dog and moved the image on the page so that it was more centered. It is almost as though a ray of sunshine came out and shone on the work. Where it was driving me crazy before, now it feels like I have a clear direction to move in.
It's funny, how when something feels right you know it. I almost feel like my subject in the painting is arguing with me and yelling at me, when I get it right there is a calm silence.