What to do when you make an ugly page…

I know I've talked about this before…ugly pages. I've shared my thoughts before. But it bears repeating. We all do it. We all make art journaling pages that we don't like. I do it all the time! This page started out as the bullseye inspiration (from a few posts ago), and it has turned into a hot mess. I did too much to it, and the page lost focus and got muddled.

But I'm okay with that. Really, I am.

Here's my "ugly page" philosophy:

• You're working in your journal. You're not making art to go on museum walls. Give yourself permission to make mistakes, to make ugly pages. I often call them "puke on a page" pages.
• You learn artistic lessons from every page you do. How can you learn and grow as an artist without making mistakes? You can't make amazing art every single time, that's unrealistic. If anything, you learn what not to do again. Or you learn when to stop. Or you learn not to use certain colors together.
• The process is just as important (or even more important) than the finished result. Expression, play, experimentation is the name of the game here. Play and see what happens. If it ends up ugly, oh well. They'll make more paper. Turn the page and start again.
• Sometimes happy accidents happen that you turn around and use to your benefit. You can refine technique, style and try it again and make it work in a different way.

No matter what, don't give up. Keep journaling. Fill up those pages with your soul.