If at first...

Her first attempt at a self-portrait she finished quickly; she’d always been able to draw with a kind of certainty few of us can muster or match. Not one to dwell on things, particularly her mistakes, she quickly discarded attempt #1. She hadn't ‘got’ herself she thought. Her eyes were too stern and her chin was lopsided.

She had told herself right at the start to expect a failure or two early on as she tried to master techniques largely new to her. So nothing daunted, and certainly without referring to her first attempt, she laid down outline #2.