Almost

If you ask me for the word I loathe the greatest, it is "almost."

I am a workaholic, a go-getter, a perfectionist. I find almost to be the tragic, thin line between success and failure. Hitting "almost" means doing all you absolutely could, only to find that you could not reach the standards you so dearly sacrificed everything for.

It is potential shot down because somebody was jealous. Sabotages no one owns up to. What you could have, but didn't and never will. Nobody's fault. Loss you didn't deserve. "Almost" there! "Almost" first! ...Almost.

It is failure in disguise, not insidiously gathering its usual smirk, but cackling, in the sunlight, because it knows it has won, absolutely. Once you go through "almost," you can't come back. And I realize many wear the battle marks.

You earn nothing from this but experience. I guess "almost" has made me a stronger person, but I couldn't walk away right now and tell you I don't bear a single regret.

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This is still a WIP - Work in Progress! It lacks finishing texture touch-ups, the dragon's silhouettes on the other crystals, the light from the moon, and visual accommodation effects/blurring background cliffs so they will appear more realistically far away(Haha, thanks Augmented Reality lab! 8D). I started it in October 2009, and it is currently June 2010.

And yes, this piece is at the moment, an "almost."

Digital coloring using Paint Shop Pro 8. The colors were put over a scanned-in pencil sketch, but everything else is/will be completed with a mouse.

Wing © Lorraine Seleven Lin