How I design - under pressure

well, this post is not really a part of the series that I plan, but it sort of belongs. To me a very important part of designing is inspiration and enough time. I can't work under time pressure. After school I wanted to become an artist, but I quickly realized it would mean to live from inspiration and the tricky part about inspiration .. it comes and goes. Only time will tell, so I studied biology.

Anyways sometimes you promise to create something and even though you had enough time in the very beginning, inspiration didn't sneak in. So it happened to Nemo. Now I am under time pressure to create something, but not only something, but a Nemo I can feel happy about too (being a little perfectionist sometimes is nerve wrecking)

So what do I do in such cases?

I try to find easy solutions.. like recreating something from a pattern I already made. With a fish like Nemo another fish pattern seems the next best thing. So I grabbed Chubby and started it in a Nemo-orange-yarn:

BUT it's snout was way too pointy. Meanwhile I did feel a bite by inspiration bug and started a completely new version:

But again I wasn't completely satisfied, I like the overall shape so far, actually quite a bit, but I don't like the texture: I added a few more stitches than just the classic single crochet and even though I think they might add a nice twist to the touch I fear they might allow stuffing to show through. And since Nemo will be given to a baby I don't want any risk.

While designing, I write down EVERY SINGLE STITCH I make:

What do I do now?, I try to combine both patterns..