The Frustrations of Watercolor Painting

It's spring break. The deadline for entering art in the California State Fair is April 23, so I've been painting. I spent three days working on a watercolor from a photo I took at Table Mountain, and today I was nearly finished. But the wash I'd done for the sky was nearly colorless, so I decided to redo it. Bad idea! First the trees I'd already finished began bleeding into the sky. I decided to leave a bank of clouds behind the scene to avoid this problem. Then the wash I was doing for the sky had a white blemish, probably from my fingerprints from handling the block. I tried to patch the white blemish unsuccessfully. Then I tried to do a wash on the clouds to add some shadows, but they came out too heavy, so I attempted to scrub and blot them. That didn't work well, so I used a little sandpaper, which left an unsightly texture on the cloud. Next I tried to erase over the sanded area, and a whole chunk of paper came off. I don't think the painting is salvageable anymore. I certainly don't want people at the fair thinking, "This artist doesn't even know how to do a wash!"

Aaah, the frustrations of working in watercolor! I think I have no choice but to start over. Baaaah!