While agree that critique is useful, a lot of the time people just don't want to hear it.

I've been drawing for close to 20 years I know I make mistakes and I know not everything is drawn
correctly and having someone point out the flaws I already know about can be irritating at times.

There have been times where I have asked nicely for others not to critique my work in the comments
mainly because if I've worked on something for 15 hours and one of the first things someone does is
pick out what's wrong, it can be disheartening. So I really do understand why a lot of artists, especially
the younger ones feel the need to ask that their work not be critiqued, it can be helpful yes, but it can
also be hurtful and can make some younger artists not want to keep trying.

I can understand not wanting to hear a critique, but I don't equate not wanting to hear one to the critiquer being rude. A person can give a critique in a positive manner, which provides both encouragement and suggestions to the artist.

There are two issues here. How artists view critiques and how people give critiques. The right way to give a critique is with a complement sandwich, and a lot of people forget that. If people could learn to give positive critiques like, "Your lines are beautiful! I think it would look even better if you made the shadows just a little bit darker. And I love her eyes!" it would make it a lot easier for younger artists to use critiques to improve. Bad critiques make people less open to critiques.

How artists view critiques makes a huge impact on how insulting a critique is. The problem is that people generally aren't taught how to take constructive criticism these days. It's either, "Everyone says this is good, I'm awesome!" or "One person said this is bad, I suck!" This could be influenced by how schools are generally run. If you aren't getting an A+ you aren't doing your best. This isn't good, because outside eyes critiquing our work reveal issues in our art that we might miss, because we're too deep into it. It also gives insight to what our fans want to see, and what professionals or employers expect of us.

When we keep in mind that a person is offering a critique because they're invested in our art, and us growing as an artist, it's easier to not take it so personally. Taking a critique as a challenge, something that we can focus on getting right in our next image, is also a very positive way to take and use critiques.

Of course, there are just a bunch of douche bags online who aren't really invested in a person's art, and just want to point out flaws to be jerks. I'm not excusing those people. I'm only ranting about how artists these days aren't raised, or refuse, to open themselves up to critiques and instead say that people who critique are bad. If an artist doesn't want a critique, okay, that's fine. But don't tell people they're rude just for wanting to help us improve.

I think the ones that call people who give critiques rude, are the people who, have more then likely had to deal with
someone who didn't know how to be nice. It's always difficult to hear someone tell you that your art needs a lot of
help, if they are saying it in a rude and unhelpful way, which in my experience aside from one critique has always
been rude and unnecessary.

If someone can critique and actually give good advice that can help one improve then that's not the problem. I just
think there are more rude people then not. Mind you I'm going by DA's standards, I've never been given a critique
here on FA.

Oh goodness, the critiques you can get on DA can be downright terrible!

I think you're right, that some artists who think critiques are rude just feel that way because they get rude critiques. But I've also seen a lot of artists take positive critiques or neutral critiques and just blow it way up.

Oh I've seen artists get angry about critiques too, and if you would rather someone not critique
your work you can say it nicely in the description of the art without coming off as immature and
snappy as well. Some people just don't get it I suppose >.<

This is one of those delicate subjects that should be talked about with a large mass of people. One group of people are too sensitive and the other is too insensitive. It's difficult to find the middle ground but, it's there. Even if so, I believe that any artist who wishes to take themselves seriously should be open to critique. It's good to know what needs to be checked on, and even if something seems off, a person might want to consider that their trademark of sorts.

I also believe that one of the possible issues at hand is age group. At times, I believe most of the people who are emotionally upset at the idea of people people giving advice/critique is at an age where things bother them the most (example: teens). Now, I understand that maturity levels vary from person to person but, I'm trying to speak as a 'majority' subject, not anyone in particular.

There's also the subject, as you stated, how to give critique. Also, sometimes I feel it should also be a who is doing the critiquing(how to spell that? ). Going off personal experience, I feel that I should not critique someone's work because I am not quite experienced enough to be able to point anything out or, feel that my advice would be of any worth... [lost train of though]

Also wanted to point out, that example you put in the comments section (the first one), I learned is called a compliment sandwich.

I don't know if it's an age or maturity thing, but mostly like... what people have experienced, and been taught about being open. These days I see a lot of self-centralized thinking. That we only need ourselves to be our best, or we should only care about our own views. But really, other people's views and critiques can be very useful in helping us improve. It is more common in young people, though, for sure. Maybe it's something that's been taught more in the younger generations?

As an artist I do agree, to some extent, that non-artists can't always provide the best critiques. But even admirers of art can see flaws, when they're obvious. And everybody sees things in a different way. So non-artist critiques can still be useful. They just aren't always as technical.

Yeah, I've faced this bullshit in here.
Even the more advanced artists are like this in here.

OH NO! I WASN'T SUGAR COATED WITH CANDY, CHOCOLATE AND COMPLIMENTS! THIS MAN MUST BE A TROLL ANS JELLO OF MY ART!!

Just makes me wonder why they even bother to showcase their art if they are not interested to get better at it.
Seriously sick and tired of these guys.

Lol, "Jello."

I've seen some very positive young artists, and talented artists in this site, so not everyone is bad at taking critiques. I've just seen a lot of negativity towards critiques lately, and witnessed some IRL, so I had to rant about it. xD

It sort of reminds me of the "Could you do better?" argument.

I think a lot of people do genuinely lack the knowledge to describe how something could be improved and then they come across as rude or overly critical.
But at the same time, I think when you expose anything to a public audience you have to take the good with the bad.

You might get a lot of comments from people who don't really know what they are talking about and aren't really useful critique but you also might miss out on some very valuable advice too.

Even those who don't practice a skill can provide useful insight. My fiance isn't very good at drawing, but he can often point out anatomical errors for me that I'm missing because I'm focusing on something else. I think the big issue is how people word their critiques. Especially online, people seem to think it's okay to be a jackass online.

I suppose you have a point there, but yeah the biggest thing seems to be how people word it.
Anonymity turns people into assess.

I could go on for hours about that though :P

There really is no such thing as "could you do better?" if you are actually describing how to do it better or what is wrong in a first place.

Oh no I agree, Im just saying I'm reminded of that.

My art sucks. I know this. Without feedback the best I can do is learn to emulate. It's really been hard to develop a style of my own without any outside input.

Moving on, I know that when I order a commission, I'm always get asked "How does it look?" at some point. Normally I would step in and critique it. However, with the way 90% of the artists on here react to that kind of input I just keep quiet. Though in all honesty, if I say "It looks good." I generally mean that, it looks good. Other adjectives like great and perfect would apply as well. I do understand what those artists get as a "critique" though. So, I don't really blame them for not wanting to get that kind of feedback.

P.S. Saw one of your banner adds today Wren. I was like "Wait a sec...I recognize those lips." And proceeded to chuckle.

Lol I hope you don't mind me using that face. I just think it's one of my best faces. If you ever do feel like you didn't get good quality on a commission from me, please don't hesitate to let me know. I don't mind fixing my work for my commissioners. And I've had some pretty harsh critiques from my professors in the past so I'm sure I can handle you telling me if there's a problem xD

If you're paying for the art and the artist gets upset at critique, that artist obviously has a problem. If you tear the piece apart in a way that reads "You might as well redo the damn thing" or at least "Make a major change here, here, and here" then I can understand why the artist would get upset, but if it's just something like "Her legs are a little thin, but other than that your work is fantastic! So glad I commissioned you!" then the artist getting upset is just an insult to you.

You're paying them. They're doing work. And just like if I don't file something properly as my dad's assistant at his firm, or if my mom makes a mistake and tells a customer the wrong thing at her customer service job, it needs correcting and then it won't happen again. No big deal :3

I agree with this rant pretty hardcore, but there's a part of me that's kinda like "eh...I understand the other side too."

I know that my visual art is definitely not my strong suit. I'm a better writer than I am a visual artist, this will probably always be how it is since I have more of a passion for writing anyway, and I've accepted that. Still, I want to get better in both fields, good enough to one day illustrate my own books and stories confidently, and to do that I need critique. But at the same time, I can point out a lot of the flaws that my work has. I know I need SERIOUS work with anatomy, that my shading is crap, and that my coloring skills need real work. I've been focusing on one at a time, and I've seen real improvement in my coloring so far, and now I'm working on anatomy, but it's really difficult and it's gonna take me some time.

The point I mean to bring up is that when I'm already working on something and focusing on bettering myself, I'd much rather be told "Wow, look how much you've improved!" than "But wait, there's more!" you know?

I'm still happy to accept critique, but I like critique that not only is telling me what's wrong, but how to make it better. See, I drew a picture for a guy of his character in an RP him and I are doing together with a bunch of other people and threw in another sketch of her just for fun. The only reaction he had was "Her head is too small." Ok, her head is too small. Do I fix that by redrawing the head, or are the shoulders too wide and make her head seem too small, or is it because her clothes are too poofy? etc. etc.

I hope I'm making sense and not just going off on a rant of my own XD

Oh you totally make sense. I hate it when people don't give positive or proper critiques. Just telling people what is wrong is never the right thing to do. There needs to be a mention of something they did right. And even better, how they should fix it.

I had a similar situation with an old online friend. I drew his knight character for free, because I gave out a lot of free art back then. And all he could say was that armor was not my strong point. Well of course armor wasn't my strong point! That was the first time I'd ever drawn armor! But it was free, so he could've at least been nice about it :\

I totally get where some artists are coming from in not liking negative critiques. This rant was focused more at people who don't value critique and just get hurt over the most simple suggestions.

Well see I prefer bad critique over rude commentary, but I prefer complaints or at least a "thank you so much!" over bad critique. And above all I prefer good critique.

I took it for what it was worth - that I need to work on my anatomy, which is true - but I just think that if people were informed about what good critique was, people would be more inclined to accept it since what the difference between being an asshole and being kindly and helpfully critical would be common knowledge.