“Everyone always says they don’t like their painting,” a student said to me during my last workshop. “It’s like saying, ‘I don’t like my butt in jeans.’ Nobody likes their butt in jeans, but we have to move past that.”
“That’s only true of half the population,” I laughed. “If men think about it at all, they think their butts look great in jeans.”
Feeling like all your paintings are bad is painfully common among artists, especially when we’re pushing ourselves to grow. Here’s how to move through that self-doubt mindset:
Recognize it as a sign of growth
Self-doubt often shows up right before a breakthrough. It means your eye is improving faster than your hand. You can see what’s wrong—but not yet fix it. That’s not failure. It’s progress.
You are not your painting
Bad paintings do not mean you’re a failure. Your job is not to be good every time you paint. Your job is to show up, make the work, and learn from it. Distance yourself from your work enough to critique it without self-loathing.
How much better are you than you were a year ago?
Look at what you painted last year. You’ll probably see how much you’ve improved. You’ll also see paintings that you thought were terrible that you quite like today. Progress is always easier to see in hindsight.
Finish it anyway
Even if it feels like a hot mess, finish that painting. There’s discipline in following something through to the end. Often, what seems hopeless halfway through turns into something interesting. And sometimes real progress feels ‘off’ to us, because it’s something we’ve never seen before. (That’s why I discourage painters from immediately scraping out work they don’t like.)
We’re not perfect
Not every painting needs to be good. Some are just learning opportunities. You only get better by making a lot of work, some of which will be bad. That’s normal. That’s healthy. That’s how we grow.
You should visit my studio and see my stack of bad paintings. It’s a good thing I have a sander and know how to use it.
Keep painting
This part is non-negotiable. Even if you think it’s all bad, keep painting anyway. Don’t wait to feel confident. Don’t wait to be inspired. Keep painting, and trust that quality will follow quantity.
Some questions to ask yourself
- What does ‘bad’ mean to you? What are you actually criticizing? This is where formal criticism is helpful, because it removes emotion from the process.
- What did you learn from this painting?
- Who are you trying to impress? Be honest—are you painting for you, your peers, Instagram, your teacher, or an ideal version of yourself?
- How and what would you paint if nobody was ever going to see the results?
- What would you tell me if I said “I hate my painting”? I doubt you’d agree, and you deserve the same objectivity, compassion and insight you’d offer to me.
Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:
- Canyon Color for the Painter | Sedona, AZ, March 9-13, 2026
- Advanced Plein Air Painting | Rockport, ME, July 13-17, 2026
- Sea & Sky | Acadia National Park, ME, August 2–7, 2026
- Find your Authentic Voice in Plein Air | Berkshires, MA, August 10-14, 2026
- New! Color Clinic 2026 | Rockport, ME, October 3-4, 2026
- New! Composition Week 2026 | Rockport, ME, October 5-9, 2026
My mom went to art school, and in spite of being a talented artist, for various reasons, many having to do with lack of support in her time, wasn’t able to finish. She then worked as an art librarian in a well known museum. Eventually after raising 3 kids, she got, back to art classes and oil painting when we were grown. She painted some stunning portraits, yet after each, she’d verbally rip her painting to shreds.
I vowed that if i ever painted, i’d appreciate and enjoy my work. So i try to do that. At times some of my most frustrating, worst plein air scenes that I stayed to the finish became favorites. (A few because a child arrived and was entranced with my work!!) Other times i’ve been able to “fix” stuff later. A couple i’ve chopped out part of the work because i liked the rest a lot more. A very few i’ve written off to hopeless, though i learned something from all of them.
Thank you, Jennifer.
I had a teacher tell me to put any paintings I didn’t like into a “vacation box”. The idea being you could revisit the painting at some point in the future & you would see what needed to be done. Her point was that as long as you continued painting your artist’s eye & technique would grow allowing you to complete the painting.
of course she also said that if you felt that the painting was not redeemable that you could sand the panel for reuse, just paint over it or burn it to get rid of the bad juju.
Thank you. I used to never sand them out but with the price of boards these days…
“Look behind any god painter and you’ll see square miles of canvas…” I doing reminder where I got that quote but all those miles can’t be perfect. Painting is like marriage. Stay committed and trust that things will work themselves out if you keep working at it.
Thank you, Casey.