Artists SOLVE problems!

(Key stage 2) There are several types of MISTAKES:

Stretch mistakes:  when you try something new!   We are bound to make mistakes when we are exploring and learning new skills.  These are POSITIVE!  It's proof we are challenging ourselves to learn something new and being brave!
Aha mistakes:  When we think about the mistakes and learn from them.  For example, mix blue and orange together and you get brown.  Aha, you might not want to mix those two colors together again.   Ouch!  the hot glue gun IS hot!  might be more cautious the next time you use it.

Sloppy mistakes:  Sloppy mistakes happen when we are doing something we already know how to do but we do it incorrectly because we lose concentration.  

Sometimes we envision exactly how we want our art to look. 

 Sometimes our project comes close to what we had imagined and other times when they are not what we had in mind, we can feel frustrated, sad or disappointed.  

Artists can improve through practice.  

Artists develop their skills but this can be a frustrating time working to get better at drawing, painting, sculpting, etc.  

Artists make mistakes and mistakes can make artists great. Think of a time you made a mistake and used it to make something great!

Sometimes what we perceive or see as an accident can lead to a new way of making art. 

Several years ago Melanie Rothschild spilled a whole gallon of paint in her workshop and it pretty much changed her life. It seemed too messy to clean the wet paint at the time and she figured she'd let it dry for a few days and then chip it off bit by bit. When she came back to it later in the week she was amazed when the entire spill, now all dry, peeled up in one glorious piece. She actually became obsessed with deliberately pouring paint, letting it dry and peeling it up. She also became obsessed with the whole idea of how mistakes lead to new ideas

Look at a mistake as a path to a new idea!  

You are a SMART artist.  Turn your mistake into something you WANT in your work.

A mistake can become a  BEAUTIFUL OOPS!

Look at this artwork! Would you agree this artist did a good job?  

Do you see a something that could have made the artist want to throw her paper into the recycling bin?  

How did the artist solve this challenge?

When you think you have made a mistake, here are some solutions SMART ARTISTS use.

Artists don't make mistakes, they make CHANGES!  but not every mistake has to be used...mistakes are a natural and common part of art making.