When at first you don't succeed, you probably should have made a maquette

The posing, plastering, sculpting, bisque-firing, and primering stages are all complete. The next step is definitely to put your favorite hat on your sculpture and send a picture of it to the model, right?
Freshly primered Kevin:

The next step is to spend 2 solid days painting it, and a few scattered hours in between, without having thought it through enough. Mmmmmmmm that doesn't sound quite right.

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It doesn't look quite right, either. Not at all what I was shooting for.

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So I have a bad habit of not making maquettes before starting major pieces. I work on an idea in my sketchbook, write out a lot of possibilities and details, and then dive in. Sometimes it works out great, and sometimes I put lots of takes-a-long-time-to-dry oil paint on the piece and hate it. But have to wipe off what paint I can and wait for the rest to dry before I can redo it. Ugh.

This was me, if the mud was chocolate.

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Make some more things to de-grump and pass the time.

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Then, lo! The paint has FINALLY dried!
Painting, take two: