Even though I agree that external validation shouldn't be relied on, and your own opinion of yourself is the most important, that's still really hard to do when you don't like how you look.
A different comic that connected to me a little more was this one:
Where just because I don't like the way I look, doesn't mean I'm ugly. Someone else may like just as I am, so the important thing for me is to be healthy and happy with myself, even if I don't like how I look
... I'm realizing I'm mostly just rewording what you said, but I wanted to share the comic in case it helps someone else see another perspective :D
That is a great way to look at it!
It's always hard to get through the mental block of comparing oneself to others (or your own art to another's), but I really really like how you said the process of discovering the beauty in anything. I need to internalize that and push away the perfectionism that says I could (should) do better. That doesn't matter, anything can be beautiful, and there's no good reason to discredit something just because you're still in the process of learning (or self improving)
Thank you, I'll definitely be stealing this way of explaining what I've been trying to put into words