Back to the Drawing Board

I know this expression says a lot.  Something doesn't work the way you thought it would?  Something doesn't go the way you planned?  Something unexpected happens?  It's back to the drawing board to try again.  For me and my art, I take this expression literally.  I have two places to work in my studio:  at my desk and at my drawing board table.  When I am at the beginning of a complex project, I spend time at my desk doing research and studying photos on my computer, and I doodle at the drawing board.  I bounce back and forth from table to desk as an idea is tested, tweaked, and discarded when a better idea emerges.  It is an essential stage because this is when I start to fully understand the nature of the thing I'm working on. How it grows. What is its character.  I go back to the drawing board again and again until eventually something clicks.  I've got a drawing in my mind that starts to work on paper.  I don't mind getting to a dead end and having to start over, because I am learning all the while.  And I know my end result will be better for all the trials it took to get there.  Sometimes I wish I could be this persevering in other aspects of my life, helping me overcome other barriers, real or imagined.  Ah well, at least in this arena I know what works.  I have to go back to go forward.