When I work digitally I can experiment much more freely. If I mess up I just hit undo, or go back in the history, or if all else fails, close without saving and reload from wherever I saved last. That's not as easily the case with traditional mediums. Traditional mediums aren't as unforgiving as you might imagine, but still, the level of effort to undo something in acrylic or watercolor is significantly higher, and there are some mistakes that there is no coming back from.
That makes knowing when a piece is 'finished' all the more difficult. If it's too rough it looks unfinished. A few strokes later the magic is gone and it now looks overworked. The trick is finding the sweet spot where it looks just right to you as an artist. My natural inclination seems to be to cover the whole canvas or page. But there are timed when leaving the under-sketch showing, or a transition unblended actually enhance a piece. It can give it a liveliness that is missing in overworked pieces.
I wish I could share a tip or trick on knowing when to march forward and when to stop before it's too late, but I can't even begin to articulate it. I think it's just one of those things you learn and understand on an unspoken level as you progress on your own journey. So I guess the tip is to practice more, screw up some pieces and make sure you learn from them.
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