I've come to realize that painting or any kind of art is a life-long journey with twists and turns rather than a destination or place that you arrive.

Many aspiring artists get stuck in the rut of copying work from artists they enjoy but when attempting to create a piece of their own, they fall short. There is nothing too wrong with this in the beginning - the main problem comes when this is repeated and becomes habit. Now that we know one of the problems, we can fix it before it happens.