When is a painting finished ?

This is my third session on the clown painting. I let the under painting dry before I continued. This allows me to build up color while not disturbing the under painting. Some oil colors are so transparent that you’ll need several layers of the same color to get the full chroma of that color. Letting the under painting dry also allows me to let it show through in some spots adding depth and atmosphere.
So when I get to this point in a painting I like to walk away from it and take a good look from across the room. If I’m on the right track it should be readable from a good distance as well as up close. It’s a good idea to let the painting sit for a few days without looking at it. Just walk away and coming back with fresh eyes, its amazing how many simple errors you’ll find.. I guess while your painting your looking at your work for so long that you start to see what you want to see.
Another way to scrutinize your painting for flaws is to hold it up to a mirror. This will put a whole new spin on your work and you’ll notice compositional errors that for some reason you just couldn’t see before. For the life of me I don’t know why I torture myself with this particular process because my paintings always seem to look like a train wreck when I look at them in the mirror.
This all brings up a good point......when is a painting finished? When do you just stop painting before you fuss the whole thing to death? I say you just put the thing in a closet for a month or two without looking at it and if you still like it after that, then just sign it and call it quits. Sure you can show it to your friends and family, but if they don’t paint too then they may not be able to give you the technical critique your looking for, They may say they love it, not to hurt your feelings or they may say "well it’s ok but there’s something wrong with the nose!"
This is why art classes are so important for me, along with assistance on class projects my art teacher is kind enough to critique my personal works. Being the nice person that she is, at first I noticed she was being to kind. I guess positive encouragement is a good motivator but when you get right down to it, the only way to paint better is to know what your doing wrong. So I asked her "please don’t blow sunshine up my butt" just tell me the truth you won’t hurt my feelings. "What don’t you like about this painting, what’s wrong with it and what can I do to make it better.". I respect her as an artist and her honest critiques are worth there weight in gold. In the end I find it easier to call a painting finished when the art teacher says put the brushes down and step away from the painting ...your finished.