Hi everyone! Long time no post..
Had a pretty rough day today and figured I'd share my experiences with criticism. I've been in MANY critiques, but my experience today felt more like a hostile bullying party than a critique on our life size self portraits... Everyone was so buddy-buddy with each other, giving compliments about each other's work, including the students who have been struggling with the human figure. All the way up until mine was up for roasting. I immediately felt like there was some sort of bad energy in the room. A guy I used to be best friends with said my 8+ hours of work was 'lazy', another talked to me like I was four and didn't know how to use a damn phone to change the effect on a reference photo. More and more just started ganging up on me and telling me how much a suck, pretty much. For once my professor was the nice one. I cried through the rest of the class and the whole time driving home. This was the first time I ever felt a hostile energy from a critique. My other critiques have been very helpful for my growth. I learned a lot from those. but this one really shook me up.
I just wanted to make a post about criticism because it's something all artists have to learn how to deal with. I'm still trying to make a thick skin for myself so days like this in the future just bounce off and I can let it go easier. And that's one of the hardest things to do. Developing a thick skin is what keeps artists alive and creating. If every little critique brought us to the point where we don't want to continue art anymore, there would be no more art! Ever since college started I've been a TON better with accepting criticism. But there's a fine line between criticism and putting someone's artwork down.
For example, that guy in my class was on the bad side of criticism. Telling someone their artwork is "bad" or "lazy" isn't HELPING them in any way! That's just discouraging them. Constructive criticism is what you want to share and give. Others told me my contrast needed some work, which I could understand. After looking at the same piece for 8+ hours it's hard to see what needs to be done to it, and now I'm able to see what I needed for that portrait because of the CONSTRUCTIVE criticism I was given.
I feel like this needs to be shared more. There's a HUGE different between constructive criticism (GOOD) and putting down the artist's work (BAD). So next time someone wants your opinion, try being nice and pointing out what they can improve on instead of being hurtful and a buttface <3
