Just heard a digital artist talk about their 'ugly phase' rule

I was watching a stream yesterday where an artist said they have a rule to never delete a piece before the 48 hour mark, even if they think it looks bad. They called it the 'ugly phase' and said almost every finished piece goes through one. They showed a timelapse of a portrait that looked like a total mess at the 3 hour point, but after sleeping on it, they fixed it in like 2 more hours and it turned out great. It made me think about how many of my own projects I might have bailed on too early. Do you guys have a similar rule or a point where you know to just push through?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicew681mo ago

That's a really smart rule. It makes me wonder if the artist has a specific way they come back to a piece after that waiting period. Do they look at it with fresh eyes and make a list of what's wrong, or do they just start fixing things on instinct?

olivia_bailey27d ago

Oh @alicew68 I used to totally be on paige427's side about just trashing stuff. But honestly this made me realize I was just being impatient.

paige4271mo ago

Honestly, that sounds like a great way to hoard a bunch of bad files. My rule is the opposite. If I hate something after working on it for a while, I scrap it and start fresh. That waiting period just lets me get attached to a bad idea. Sometimes you just need to admit it's not working and move on.