Thinking of your yourself as a “bad artist” who makes “bad art” just gives you permission to resign yourself to dissatisfaction. You need to look at pieces with a lens of “what am I happy with? What am I dissatisfied with? What were my goals? How did I try to fulfill them? What did I learn?”

Been dealing with spiraling back into the "bad art" mindset due to medication changes and I'm glad you're speaking about it. Will take this advice to heart.

giving myself permission to be imperfect, learning, and laugh at my more awkward attempts has done wonders to keep my enthusiasm for art going even in the darker times. Nothing is thrown away. maybe repurposed, but not useless.

Love this. It was an important day I learned how to reasonably critique work instead of dumping on it and what the difference looks like. It was an even more important day when I learned to do it to my own work. Sometimes I even manage to pull it off!

It's true. Once you get it into your head you're never going to be good you have no incentive to work through the hard parts

I needed to hear/listen to this years ago, and I'm still unlearning it. It's probs the biggest thing that's held me back and makes sitting down to draw fraught with anxiety. Genuine question - aside from what you've said, any thoughts on how to talk to people about your stuff in a healthier way?