Abadoned painting

My assignment was to pick a portrait from an old master(Rembrandt self portrait, in my case) and choose a cute animal, then recreate the image with atmospheric light, use the same color palette (not with the picker). But first, do a color comp! 

I've jumped right into the final piece with a very poor initial sketch as you can see above. 

I felt my mistake after hours of painting and I finally understood this whole assignment. 

I realized that I have to battle with myself and continue doing much more drawings of chimpanzees.

I gave myself time for the first time! In years...

Now, I feel I have a better sketch to work from and some anatomical knowledge of the chimpanzees skull.

And I'll start the color comp soon which is very exciting.