When Your Project Doesn't Go As Planned ...

Here I was thinking I was going to make these awesome Pikachu inspired polymer beads ☺ I got all excited about it and drew up the Chu just the way I wanted him to look in the clay.

I carefully shaped him, and added a bit over 50% of my hard to find glow in the dark Sculpy III so he would light up the darkness with his Pokemon awesomeness.

I rolled him out in to a long bar preparing to slice. Here is where you can start to see a bit of the problem; I made him too thin and when I rolled it the colors shifted and went every which way majorly distorting his face :(

This is the moment where I used a big knife and sliced into the clay bar only to discover that something had gone horribly wrong, and he no longer looked like a Pikachu at all :(

     When your art project doesn't go as planned, it can be very frustrating. That moment when you realize you have reached the point of no return with whatever you're working on, and you're not going to get the results you desired is a tough one. For the example photos above, I had been working on some polymer Pikachu inspired beads that just didn't go right, and here's why;

1. I did not have the right tools for the job. As much as I did not want to go spend money on more art tools, I would have rather had what I needed and gotten the results I wanted and spent the money to get the right tools. Having the right tools for the job ensures that you will get the results that you want in the future.

2. While I had ample experience, I had not practiced in over 18 years. Experience is a great thing to have and no one can ever take that away from you, but if you think you're going to get it right on the first try after not using your skills for x amount of time, you've got another thing coming. I should have started with something easier and then worked my way up after ensuring that my method was still effective after not using my skills.

3. I made hasty decisions. I was so excited to roll out my Chu beads that I did not stop to consider the way that the clay would shift when I rolled it -_- Big mistake! A little patience goes a long way when it comes to art work. 

     At the end of this experience with the failed Chu, I found myself disheartened as I had failed at doing something I've done well so many times in the past and "wasted" a lot of my materials and resources attempting to do something that just didn't work out the way I had planned ... 

WAIT! ALL IS NOT LOST!!!

     Just because what I created didn't turn out the way that I had initially hoped doesn't mean that it can not still turn out to be something great, and that is what is awesome about art! Sometimes your art mistakes and mishaps can turn into something awesome ☺ Upon realizing that I was not going to achieve what I had set out to do with what I was making, I also realized that glow in the dark clay is awesome and now with all these streaked colors, I could make some awesome glow in the dark colorful abstract art beads. 

     Why am I telling you all of this? Because I want to encourage you ♥ Sometimes as artists we are too hard on ourselves and we limit our creativity with perfectionist views and goals that we are unable to meet, and then we are disappointed and we neglect to see what else we can do to create something beautiful with what we have. Your art is what you make it, and if you give up on your project too soon just because it doesn't look like the original idea you have in mind, you may be missing out on something awesome.

     I challenge you to take one piece that you "messed up" recently, and remake it into something else. I would LOVE to see your results in the comments section of this blog if you're willing to share ♥ I will share the result of my jacked up Chu bead attempt as soon as they are finished.

Also, I have started posting albums for people who would like to share their art projects on Revelationart Facebook page. Click the link to Share Your Work.

***UPDATE***

Here are one of the items that resulted from the clay pile from this scrapped project