On Experimentation, Discovery, and Learning to Trust Your Creative Voice
Creative confidence is something many of us wish we had more of. We look at artists, makers, and creatives we admire and assume they must have started with a level of confidence that allowed them to create freely.
But in my experience, confidence rarely comes first… It grows through the doing.
I was reminded of this recently while working in my art journal. I sat down with a handful of supplies, no real plan, and a willingness to see what might happen. Layer by layer, I experimented with different materials and techniques. Some things worked beautifully. Others… not so much. When I finished the page, I wasn’t particularly happy with the result.
A few years ago, that might have bothered me. I might have looked at the page and considered it a failure. But as I sat with it, I realized something important: even though I didn’t love the finished page, I had learned a lot while creating it. I discovered a new way to use a product. I learned something about how certain materials interacted with one another. I found a color combination I want to revisit in the future. Most importantly, I spent time creating without the pressure of getting it right.
The page may not have earned a place in a frame, but it absolutely earned a place in my creative journey. That experience reminded me of something I tell my Besties all the time:
Creativity didn’t show up after confidence. It was the thing that built it.
The Myth of Creative Confidence
One of the biggest misconceptions I see is the belief that confident creatives create because they are confident.
Many of us think confidence arrives first.
Once I’m confident, I’ll paint.
Once I’m confident, I’ll try that technique.
Once I’m confident, I’ll share my work.
Once I’m confident, I’ll call myself creative.
But confidence doesn’t usually work that way.
Think about any skill you’ve developed throughout your life. Whether it was learning to cook, drive, garden, decorate your home, or tackle a DIY project, confidence wasn’t waiting for you at the starting line. It developed because you kept showing up, learning, adjusting, and trying again.
Creativity is no different. Every brushstroke, every experiment, every project that doesn’t go exactly as planned is helping you build trust in yourself.
What “Unsuccessful” Pages Teach Us
One of the reasons I encourage experimentation so often is because experiments remove the expectation that everything has to work.
When scientists run experiments, they don’t expect every test to be a success. They’re gathering information. They’re learning. They’re discovering possibilities. I think creativity works much the same way.
Some of my greatest discoveries have come from projects that didn’t turn out the way I intended. Sometimes I discover a technique I want to use again, product I don’t particularly enjoy working with and/or I learn that an idea looked much better in my imagination than it did on paper. All of those outcomes are valuable.
The challenge is that many of us have been conditioned to judge every creative experience by the final result. But what if success looked like trying something new? What if it looked like learning something about your materials or spending an hour fully engaged in the creative process?
The more I create, the more I realize that not every page needs to be beautiful to be valuable.
Discovering Your Creative Voice
One of the unexpected gifts of experimentation is that it helps you discover your creative voice.
People often ask how they can find their style. I don’t believe most people find their style by searching for it directly. I think they discover it through curiosity. Every time you try a new product, test a new technique, or explore a different approach, you’re gathering information about what resonates with you.
You begin to notice patterns. You may find that you are drawn to layer and texture. Maybe vintage imagery and worn surfaces are what bring you joy. If you find yourself returning to the same themes over and over again… these preferences may be clues to your creative voice. Over time, those clues begin to tell a story about who you are as a creative. The more you experiment, the more clearly you begin to recognize yourself in your work. That’s when your creative voice starts to emerge. Not because someone taught it to you, but because you discovered it for yourself.
Why I Created the Roycycled Journal
This idea of experimentation is one of the reasons I created the Roycycled Journal.
For years, I’ve watched women sit down at their creative tables carrying an enormous amount of pressure. They want to make something beautiful. They don’t want to waste supplies. They don’t want to make mistakes. They want every project to be worthy of the time and energy they’re investing.
That’s a lot to carry onto a single project.
I wanted to create a space that felt different. A space where curiosity could lead, where experimentation felt safe, where the page was already inviting you into the conversation.
Over the course of several months, I gathered and curated one hundred pages of vintage ephemera, typography, textures, and imagery that brought me joy. As the journal began to take shape, I realized I wasn’t just collecting beautiful pages. I was creating the kind of creative space I wish more women had.
A blank page can feel surprisingly intimidating. It asks us to make the first move. It asks us to know where we’re going before we’ve even begun. But creativity rarely works that way.
I wanted these pages to feel like an invitation. An invitation to experiment, layer, play, and discover. To add your own marks, colors, and ideas without worrying whether the outcome would be perfect. Because confidence isn’t built by getting everything right. It’s built by giving ourselves permission to begin.
Whether you use the Roycycled Journal or a sketchbook you already have on hand, my hope is that you’ll give yourself permission to create without expectation. If you’d like to learn more about the Roycycled Journal, you can find it through Roycycled Retailers or at www.roycycled.com
Permission to See What Happens
As we get older, many of us become very good at protecting ourselves from failure.
We stop raising our hands unless we’re sure we know the answer.
We stop trying things we’re not immediately good at.
We avoid situations where we might make mistakes.
But Creativity asks something different of us. It asks us to remain curious, to be willing to experiment and to embrace the possibility that things might not turn out exactly as we hoped. And in return, it gives us opportunities to learn, grow, and discover parts of ourselves we may have forgotten.
If you’re waiting to feel confident before you create, I hope you’ll reconsider. Confidence isn’t waiting for you somewhere down the road. t’s being built every time you sit down at your creative table.
Every experiment. Every layer. Every discovery. Even the pages you don’t love. Especially the pages you don’t love.
Because creativity didn’t show up after confidence. It was the thing that built it.
