Criticism, Shut the hell up and listen

If you were honestly upset by a post like that, then I both understand why you'd feel the way you do about criticism and feel as if there is no way to help you out.

Ashura, you're way too sensitive to posts made by people you don't know on the internet. Your artwork has qualities that you are already quite aware of, and people point them out too. You have every right to disregard any criticism you want, even if it's just because mean ol' shawn hurt your feewings. That does not, however, give you clearance to force everyone to conform to your idea of "nourishing the artist" (what do you want now, grapes on a platter?) by being nice and cuddly and complimentary.

If you honestly want to disregard all criticism, you can do so. You have the complete option to avoid all negative criticism and all ass-kissing, while even putting in less effort. How? Don't post. If you don't want any criticism at all, then don't even draw. You don't have to make these people take their time to help you, and they'll stop regardless of whether you post or not if you keep demanding that they give you a big ****in' hug.

My own personal opinion: Criticism is a pointer, and it varies between people. Within reason (in other words, "**** sucks" and "you rule let's sex" are flatline unacceptable) criticism has no set standard. A critic can choose to point out the flaws alone, the good parts alone, or both if they choose--it is not the choice of the person receiving the criticism to get good or bad. They can take all or nothing.

^

This is also a very important post, everyone read this

I subscribe to the school of thinking that if you're nicer about it (or at least neutral), you're going to do a better job of getting the person to improve. Telling someone "This drawing sucks, the anatomy is completely ****ing wrong and the shading makes no goddamn sense" might just scare them from trying ever again. That kind of criticism is humiliating and makes the person feel like a complete idiot who will never improve.

I'm not saying the person is "wrong" in saying the anatomy is off or the shading doesn't work. Thicker skinned artists may look past the insulting nature of the comment and pick up on the actual criticism contained within it, however plenty of artists will read that and either get extremely defensive and not listen or they will think "He's right, God I suck, what was I doing thinking I could draw at all?" and promptly give up.

I'm not saying either behaviour is right either, but it's definitely something I'd expect to see. Critics need to be aware of how their comments may sound just as much as the artist needs to think of how he interprets them. You can say all you want that they should man up, but the fact is that some of them won't.

This post has been edited by Eno the Red Guy on Jan 18 2009, 05:05 PM

Lock the thread alreadyyy

good post btw Eno

sdfgsdf ****

holy ****

You win this round, OSM >:(