06-23-2013, 09:21 PM
I super agree with this. It's surely the main reason we are here on this board right? I think partially it can be down to shyness/not knowing the culture of a place and how people interact, what the hidden "rules" or expectations might be. I agree with Blewzen that I think it has more to do with attitude than the tech side of the forum. If we all comment more and encourage that type of interactions and make people want to comment, then perhaps we'll get more of it.
Something unfortunate I noticed was that many of the introduction posts in the Welcome section have 0 replies.. this isn't encouraging either!
****** danger, sketchbook rant ahead: ******
I think it's really important for us to have a culture of friendly, constructive and even abundant critique in our sketchbooks. This rant might be going over the top but its truthfully how i see things right now, so I'd appreciate any critique on my rant on critiques, feedback on what you guys think, and i hope it's helpful.
The sketchbook section should be a place where artists of all levels are buzzing around each other, constantly offering their encouragement, feedback, insight and critique. The critique section is for asking for specific advice on a specific piece/technique, the sketchbook section is for getting feedback on your work as a whole and your development as a whole.
We really have to avoid the trap of our sketchbooks becoming just a log of our work output, where we're all working in isolation.. politely saying "good job!" to the other artists.
Here are some thoughts on the importance of giving and receiving critique from other artists:
Benefits to the person receiving:
1) They will always have an idea of what they should work on, and not fall into the trap you often see where people don't know what to practice. Following up on the advice other artists give you shows that their advice is appreciated and if you are able to really apply the advice in a critique, especially when it gets to subtler level critiques, it essentially means that your learning ability won't be capped, its a process that almost ensures that you will improve, because everyone will keep on critiquing the parts of your work that are lacking until there is less and less stuff to critique, through the process of which your work can become really, really good. This is essentially the process that you get in good art ateliers and online communities.
2) It can keep you from being complacent once you get to a middle level, where your work might start to impress some friends or get you small jobs, and where critique is sometimes harder to come by. It seems to me that its the middle levels where critique is most important, and the middle levels are also the ones where we have the most amount of artists! there are few beginners and few masters, most of us aggregate around the middle, where the learning really takes off and we should all be critiquing the hell out of everyone. we got work to do.
3) it helps you feel connected, and to pay attention. i really like Mayenla's post and I agree wholeheartedly with what s/he said, but there is a danger of feeling somewhat disconnected if people are *only* leaving quick little "nice!" comments. they're really important, but what is even more important is if people are taking the time to leave actual feedback. its easy to rush through a few "nice work, keep it up!" comments, but when your comments are offering feedback on how to improve your work, you really feel the eyes are on you, you feel the appreciation that someone spent the time to look at your work and offer feedback, and this in turn can help you pay more attention to your own work, honour the critique that was given and learn from it, etc. And its another way to help the sketchbook culture avoid becoming dead.
4) helps you continually stay in "beginners mind", always open to learning and not thinking you're ever above that.
and for the person giving critique, it's important because:
1) Helps you enter into an analytical mind-set, which is crucial for the technical side of making art. Critiquing other people will help your own technique. Giving critique can help you understand, from a different perspective than the one you usually take when working on your own stuff, why things work and why they don't. The more you do this, the more your brain/mind develops the ability to see how work can be improved, and when you apply this to your own, and you not only see the flaws but you see how to fix them, then you can go and fix them, and as this process iterates you can improve your technique a lot.
2) Can help you feel participatory and helpful, to not be just an observer who is thinking of creative new ways of saying "good work, keep it up!", but to actually do something helpful and positive, and feel good, knowing that it was positive in seeing the appreciation from the person who received the critique
3) Giving critique empowers beginners. People at all levels should be giving critique, if you are a beginner, you can also give critique to other people at your level, help them spot things in the work that they can rectify right now, its a good way for people at beginning levels to bond, and it helps the learning process dramatically. It can be tough for beginners to know what they should be doing, but when looking at another beginners work you might get an idea of what small things they could do to improve their work, and apply that thinking to yourself.
4) An extension of all this is the paintover. Doing a paintover of someone else's work is a great way to learn because it allows you to focus on a very specific part of a piece without spending all the hours doing all the stuff that led up to it, and also because invariably the piece you are critiquing will be quite different from your own drawing style, it'll be easier to see it objectively, and again, all of this trains your own analytical abilities which will help your own work.
I think the reason i think this is so important is that nobody with any skill emerges from a vacuum, so much of it has to do with the culture you're in, and to me these seem like important ingredients in creating a culture that produces tons of happy awesome artists!
thoughts??
Something unfortunate I noticed was that many of the introduction posts in the Welcome section have 0 replies.. this isn't encouraging either!
****** danger, sketchbook rant ahead: ******
I think it's really important for us to have a culture of friendly, constructive and even abundant critique in our sketchbooks. This rant might be going over the top but its truthfully how i see things right now, so I'd appreciate any critique on my rant on critiques, feedback on what you guys think, and i hope it's helpful.
The sketchbook section should be a place where artists of all levels are buzzing around each other, constantly offering their encouragement, feedback, insight and critique. The critique section is for asking for specific advice on a specific piece/technique, the sketchbook section is for getting feedback on your work as a whole and your development as a whole.
We really have to avoid the trap of our sketchbooks becoming just a log of our work output, where we're all working in isolation.. politely saying "good job!" to the other artists.
Here are some thoughts on the importance of giving and receiving critique from other artists:
Benefits to the person receiving:
1) They will always have an idea of what they should work on, and not fall into the trap you often see where people don't know what to practice. Following up on the advice other artists give you shows that their advice is appreciated and if you are able to really apply the advice in a critique, especially when it gets to subtler level critiques, it essentially means that your learning ability won't be capped, its a process that almost ensures that you will improve, because everyone will keep on critiquing the parts of your work that are lacking until there is less and less stuff to critique, through the process of which your work can become really, really good. This is essentially the process that you get in good art ateliers and online communities.
2) It can keep you from being complacent once you get to a middle level, where your work might start to impress some friends or get you small jobs, and where critique is sometimes harder to come by. It seems to me that its the middle levels where critique is most important, and the middle levels are also the ones where we have the most amount of artists! there are few beginners and few masters, most of us aggregate around the middle, where the learning really takes off and we should all be critiquing the hell out of everyone. we got work to do.
3) it helps you feel connected, and to pay attention. i really like Mayenla's post and I agree wholeheartedly with what s/he said, but there is a danger of feeling somewhat disconnected if people are *only* leaving quick little "nice!" comments. they're really important, but what is even more important is if people are taking the time to leave actual feedback. its easy to rush through a few "nice work, keep it up!" comments, but when your comments are offering feedback on how to improve your work, you really feel the eyes are on you, you feel the appreciation that someone spent the time to look at your work and offer feedback, and this in turn can help you pay more attention to your own work, honour the critique that was given and learn from it, etc. And its another way to help the sketchbook culture avoid becoming dead.
4) helps you continually stay in "beginners mind", always open to learning and not thinking you're ever above that.
and for the person giving critique, it's important because:
1) Helps you enter into an analytical mind-set, which is crucial for the technical side of making art. Critiquing other people will help your own technique. Giving critique can help you understand, from a different perspective than the one you usually take when working on your own stuff, why things work and why they don't. The more you do this, the more your brain/mind develops the ability to see how work can be improved, and when you apply this to your own, and you not only see the flaws but you see how to fix them, then you can go and fix them, and as this process iterates you can improve your technique a lot.
2) Can help you feel participatory and helpful, to not be just an observer who is thinking of creative new ways of saying "good work, keep it up!", but to actually do something helpful and positive, and feel good, knowing that it was positive in seeing the appreciation from the person who received the critique
3) Giving critique empowers beginners. People at all levels should be giving critique, if you are a beginner, you can also give critique to other people at your level, help them spot things in the work that they can rectify right now, its a good way for people at beginning levels to bond, and it helps the learning process dramatically. It can be tough for beginners to know what they should be doing, but when looking at another beginners work you might get an idea of what small things they could do to improve their work, and apply that thinking to yourself.
4) An extension of all this is the paintover. Doing a paintover of someone else's work is a great way to learn because it allows you to focus on a very specific part of a piece without spending all the hours doing all the stuff that led up to it, and also because invariably the piece you are critiquing will be quite different from your own drawing style, it'll be easier to see it objectively, and again, all of this trains your own analytical abilities which will help your own work.
I think the reason i think this is so important is that nobody with any skill emerges from a vacuum, so much of it has to do with the culture you're in, and to me these seem like important ingredients in creating a culture that produces tons of happy awesome artists!
thoughts??
- Sketchbook - seeking critique & feedback
- Instagram.com/aks9art