So waking up at 2am can make you a thinker. An occurrence on livejournal made me think about opinions versus critique and how I often see people whom don't seem to know the difference. I'm going to try to explain the basic differences and some of the problems I have with both people who give critiques/opinions and how the artists respond. I'm a little tired though so bare with me.

First off, hands down I like critique better. Critique is meant to be constructive and to help an artist while an opinion may not do either. Critique can vary from the very harsh to the extremely nice, nice is usually more motivating and better for the poor artist's ego but either should leave the artist with something to work on. In my feeling the best kind of critique is one where the mistakes and the good aspects of the drawing are both pointed out and suggestions are given on how to fix the mistakes. If you just tell an artist "that's bad" and leave it at that, their response should be "Well yeah, but how should I fix it?"

Opinions are often more general and most likely won't tell an artist how to fix a piece. They don't have to do with the technical aspects of the drawing or the skills of the artist, just whatever the opinion giver does or doesn't like. An opinion giver may say things such as "I don't like her blonde hair" even though their statement has nothing to do with the color harmony of the piece and they simply just don't like blonde hair. Opinions givers also tend to harp on things such as style, which can be a very tricky and often times counter productive thing to harp on (but to be fair many artists use 'style' as an excuse for lack of technical skills so I never can blame anyone for harping on the style if it's displeasing to the eye.)

Now that we have the basics down, let me just say this ANY ARTIST WORTH THEIR SALT SHOULD WANT CRITIQUE. No artist should EVER be satisfied with their art and they should always want to improve. One of the best ways of doing that is to seek out help and see what you're doing wrong. Sure it can be hard to stomach sometimes, we put our heart and soul into our art and even if it's picked apart in a nice way, it can still be hard. But in the end it's worth it.

Now here's the real shocker: artists should want opinions too. They maybe shouldn't be taken as seriously as a well thought out critique, but if there's a valid point in their somewhere; you should take from it. Part of the reason is because it can occasionally be a fine line between critique and opinion; an artists 'style' is a good example of when things get fuzzy. If you drew a portrait of a man and made his nose too big; it's simple to critique because someone can just point you to the man and show you where you went wrong. But if it's your 'style' to make noses big and someone doesn't like the way it looks, well then who's right? (probably no one)

I find myself having a distaste for artists who can't take critique or even opinions (though more so critique). It's okay if it upsets you, but don't jump down a person's throat because they gave you an honest opinion. Especially if more then one person points it out- they could be right on the mark about your art. We all get a little sensitive about our art sometimes, but turn it into a positive, make your art better, think to yourself, "Well they may not like it, but that's one more person who looked at my art today." The fact is if you can't take not just constructive critique but the harshest opinions out there- you'll never survive the art world. There are a lot of great artists out there who are very nice but there are also a lot of great artists out there who are complete asshats and will tell you how much you suck and that you should just slit your wrists now. But whatever happens if you really love art don't let ANYTHING that ANYONE says STOP YOU!

And to the critique/opinion givers? Try to be more constructive about what you say. It's fine if you don't like a piece or even think an artist sucks out loud but try to give them some suggestions on how to get better. If you don't know how to be constructive then you might be better off keeping your opinion to yourself.

I think we could all use a lesson in being a little more positive. I really love it when I meet artists who are just so excited about what they do and they are excited for you that you want to do the same thing. Let's spread the love, not the hate (I swear I'm not a hippie.)

Damn that was long, don't expect too many longish rants from me. I'm just.. bored.



________

REQUESTS: No
GIFTS: Rarely, and not by request.
COMMISSIONS: YES! Please! (note me)