Dare to Be Bad

Try this new art journaling prompt: make something bad on purpose. I mean, make truly BAD art to silence that inner critic and enjoy your inner child (or for the children reading this, being a child). I will go out of my way to explore mixed-media with a fun new challenge every week with the pure intention of making it BAD. It is a freedom we seldom allow ourselves and I believe hinders our ability as creators to explore our full potential. I even have journals dedicated to just messy experimentation.

This is also a trick I play on my mind. If I go into a piece of art knowing it will suck, I don’t care if it does. Mission accomplished. If it is ok, I am pleasantly surprised and keen to push it a bit further. And if it is great, well then, I just discovered a new technique and possibly a true authentic form of artistic expression I didn’t have before.

You may just discover that you like your bad side. Maybe you will be the next Picasso even.

Other resources that have been helpful for me to embrace that child-like side and provide a fresh new medium regularly are online communities like Artsnacks, Blick, or KingArt. I always discover new toys I didn’t even know existed. Plus, they have wonderfully composed YouTube videos to demo the stuff and a supportive community to communicate with virtually if you are looking for connection.

I have started my own if you would like to join the Curious Creative Studio Substack or YouTube channel as resources come available in realtime. It is so important to have other creatives to feed your inspiration and push you into new artistic frontiers.

Extra Credit Round: Give your artwork a cryptic name. It just might hold a deeper truth, or at least others might think it does.

I will call this:

"City of Love", Raechel Littman original, Gouache and watercolor on paper, January 2026.

"Grasshopper's Last Dance", Raechel Littman, Gouache on paper January 2026

"Green", Raechel, Mixed Media (Don't ask, just go with it)