Can you imagine smiling at every stage of your practice when you draw something new?

This character is smiling when his illustration is rough and simple and he is smiling when his illustration is more polished.  He trusts that practice will always bring about something worthwhile!

Consider my own experience with mistakes:

*  Mistakes have helped me learn to trust.  I have had to learn to go with the flow and be more flexible (especially with watercolors and paintings).

*  Sometimes, my mistakes have unexpectedly made my artwork even better!

*  I now know that something that doesn’t end up looking quite right simply means it’s something I need to practice and do differently next time.  This allows me to be less afraid of things not turning out right, which allows me to try out different approaches, which helps me learn to experiment!

And other story elves have other, different stories about how mistakes and practice have helped them!

When I was younger, I liked unicorn riding, and I was told by my riding instructor, a very experienced gnome, that there was no way to become a proper unicorn rider until I had fallen off 100 times!

Making a mistake while drawing doesn’t hurt like falling off of a unicorn!  So, it is much easier to keep smiling.